Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads (Deluxe Version)

Innovative guitarist Dustin Wong works in intricate patterns, not unlike composers Steve Reich or Philip Glass, and he employs abundant layering to achieve breadth and depth. His guitars are filtered and manipulated by a chorus of gadgets and pedals (distortion pedal, loop pedal, delay pedal, etc.). And like a conductor, he sculpts the music\'s flow and movement through precise manipulation of these tools. The beauty of *Dreams Say*—Wong’s second solo album—is hearing various tunes bloom into something else. The mesmerizing circling of guitars gives over to harpsichord-like tones on “Sprinkle Wet Toes,” and the complex layers of “Pink Diamond” let it move through several tableaux in five minutes. “Toe Tore Oh” starts out twinkling like dew on clover but ends in a quiet sunset of intense color. When delicate, gossamer beauties like “Ice Sheets on Feet Prints” or “Triangle Train Stop” deliver the goods without metamorphosis, it’s just as rewarding. Though there are faint overtones of King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, Wong ain’t exactly your dad’s guitar hero.

Following 2010's Infinite Love, the onetime Ecstatic Sunshine and Ponytail guitarist offers a complex, well-crafted collection of loops and layers inspired, in part, by dreams.