Peel Dream Magazine - Modern Meta Physic (Deluxe Edition) (2025) [Hi-Res]

Peel Dream Magazine have staked out a very specific spot in the indie music landscape with the fuzzy space age pop of recent albums "Rose Main Reading Room" and "Pad," but the story starts with the motorik lo-fi psychedelia of 2018's "Modern Meta Physic." Redolent of early Stereolab, Broadcast, and Grouper, songs like "Qi Velocity" and "Deetjen's" percolate and hum, buzzing with mood and melody. Now we're happy to revisit the album with this expanded deluxe edition that adds 8 new songs -- 2 from the "Modern Meta Physic" sessions and 6 demos from the very active period of recording and conceptualizing that led up to the album.

Peel Dream's Joe Stevens says:
These eight newly released B-sides and demos are all home recordings from the 2016-2017 timeframe that I wrote what would become the first Peel Dream Magazine record, 2018’s "Modern Meta Physic." Six of them are from what was supposed to be an earlier release which I abandoned, called "Saturn Patterns." I started recording that batch of songs under a different band name - Cherry Coals - with a guy named Shaun Durkan (Crushed, Weekend, Tamaryn), who I met when our previous bands played a show together at a DIY venue in Bushwick called Palisades. Shawn was producing this heavier, gothic stuff I was doing at the time, which eventually stalled out and gave way to an almost opposite, stripped down set of songs I wanted to record instead. My taste was shifting heavily toward krautrock, droney 90s indie, and 60s stuff like the Velvet Underground and Nick Drake, which all melded into what I would characterize as the early Peel Dream Magazine sound. I started using my voice in a way that felt more natural to me and gravitated toward clean guitars and simple organ drones to create songs that didn’t “move” or develop in the same way my previous ones did. I tried to stretch simple ideas into full songs without forcing myself to write proper endings, bridges, or any other ornamental flourishes I’d grown accustomed to. While the idea isn’t really that novel in the grand scheme of things, it was a major deal to me at the time. When I listen back to these songs, I hear all kinds of mistakes and half-cooked ideas, but I’m teleported to a special period where my life in New York really buzzed with possibility and wonder. Two songs - 'Kaaterskill Trailhead' and 'Modern Metaphysics' - are plucked directly from the month or two that I wrote and recorded "Modern Meta Physic," and were cut only so that we could get the run-time of that record down. These really are “first waffles”. Sharing old stuff like that can be really weird and anxiety-producing, but it’s also really cathartic. I also think this is a fun way to put a spotlight on that album again, because people seem to be discovering it now more than ever, and it’s really cool to see that it resonates with people.