ALISON DAVID / “Dreams Come True”

i've written many songs - there is a recurring theme 2 my music, about realising our dreams, finding our inner strength and coming together as 1. —Alison David

The great cliché of our time: “I have a dream,” “Keep the dream alive,” “Follow your dreams.” Although we all have dreams, most of us don’t follow them, give up before reaching them, or bury them beneath the onslaught of daily responsibilities and mundane rituals such as bill-paying and being a law-abiding citizen. Following one’s dream—so many talk the talk but oh so few walk the dream walk. Along comes London born-and-bred Alison David, a singer-songwriter of singular potential. And, I’ll be damned, this child sounds like she really means it: “after deciding a maths degree in manchester was not 4 me, i decided 2 travel, busing and hitchhiking my way along with my friend gill. i arrived in barcelona hungry penniless and tired and within hours i had money in my pockets, food in my belly, a place 2 stay and had experienced my first audience. i'd stumbled into a whole new way of life and i knew i was onto something...” Alison David. Remember the name. She doesn’t have a major release album yet. MP3s are circulating underground. She’s got a slew of singles, a couple of which have made some noise, and one of which, Dreams, made most club DJs’ shortlist of ten best songs of 2003—I think she’s going to make it, as in, soon, all will know. Dreams is one cut from a great dance music compilation CD that is well worth hunting down for a number of reasons, but right now I just want to concentrate on this one track (and two or three variations of that track). The main version is the Afronaught (aka Orin Walters, a London DJ and producer) mix and what a mix it is. Walters mashes so much music into one track, you’d think his middle name ought to be “poly” (as in polyrhythms, polyphonic) or maybe “phil” (as in philharmonic), or perhaps we could call him “phunky.” It’s hard to believe that this is not a big band recording but rather the output of a man and his studio wrapping their wonderfully warped musical stylings around a beautiful song featuring full-blast vocals that go from low growl to jet-scream high note. This particular version is well known among dance club DJs worldwide. But, there’s more. The more includes a classic bit of musical streaking. What Alison did was re-record Dreams as a ‘duo,’ just she and a guitar. After the Afronaught onslaught, one would think a duo arrangement is a recipe for instant boredom, but, oh no. We’ve all heard unplugged recordings, but this is absolutely butt-naked. And when it ends, one is impelled to hit the rewind button. But there’s still more. In between the roar of the Afronaught version and the hush of the duo version, there is a recently-recorded strings-with-broken-beat version that offers a chillout, head-nodding vibe. So what we have is a great song, a dissimilar trio of innovative arrangements, and sonically enchanting vocal performances. This is a can’t miss proposition, except to say it never would have happened if "Ms. Go-For-It" hadn’t dropped out of school and hitchhiked down to Spain searching for…who knows what. More power to you Alison, and thanks for gracing us with a great song. —Kalamu ya Salaam Click here to purchaseFabricLive.12 (a compilation that includes Dreams Come True). The strings version of Dreams Come True is available on Alison’s independent label CD entitled, appropriately enough, Believe, available at the label website: (www.nolimit.org.uk). The duo version of Dreams is available as a download from Alison’s website: (www.alisondavid.com).            I Agree I agree wholeheartedly. In all permutations, this is a great song and judging from the 10-12 trax I've heard so far, Alison David is a talented young sister. Her voice is good, but I particularly like her songwriting. It isn't often that you come across a neo-soul artist whose chord changes are strong enough to support stripped-down acoustic arrangements. Also, I should mention that Alison's voice reminds me a little of Dionne Farris'. Then again, I don't know why I should mention that. ;-) Where you at, Dionne?! —Mtume ya Salaam  

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 26th, 2005 at 12:02 am and is filed under Contemporary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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