In the Pines - Sunbeam Dream

Sunbeam Dream is In the Pines' fourth album, and the sound of five people who rebuilt their whole world around a room full of broken machines.

The Cincinnati quintet lives and works out of an old Masonic temple across the river in Dayton, Kentucky, where they run a vintage pro audio repair shop from the basement. Every tape machine, synth and effects unit on this record was salvaged from near-death, coaxed back to life, and then pushed to the exact edge of what it could still do. That obsessive, hands-on control is baked into every second here, the sound of a band that treats limitation as an invitation rather than a wall.

Musically, it takes their shoegaze-informed psych rock and drenches it in synth. A resurrected 1971 Mellotron moves from the shadows to center stage, lending real grandeur to the twilight haze. Michael's vocals cut clean through the frantic lead on the title track, while "Reticon" simmers on transcendent, staccato synth work. "Time Shakes" drifts into warmer, pastoral psych, and "Oubliette" arrives fully formed, songs at home in buzzing synths and crushing guitars alike.

It closes on "All This Noise," a quiet argument for focus over chaos, and lands as their most accomplished, immersive work yet.