Dichro – Stained Glass
“It’s Embarrassing to Like Something as Much as I’ve Liked This”
Written by Big Bear Buchko

The first cardinal rule as a journalist is to protect your material. Not just your own, but the material that you’ve been given as well; in this case, an album. When you’re given an album to review, that is your own personal copy and no one else’s. You are not to share it. You’re not to leak it. And especially in the case of an album that hasn’t officially been released yet, you don’t even talk about it outside of the article. It is here that I admit that I have broken a part of this cardinal rule… though I’ve done it purely in the name of research, not greed. With one particular track from Dichro’s debut album, Stained Glass, I involved some other people – about half a dozen or so, for the simple purpose of answering this question: “…am I fucked-up, or is this absolutely goddamn BRILLIANT?” And to my complete lack of surprise… every single one of them… agreed with me. They also pointed out that, yes, I am probably fucked-up as well. And I was. (Am.) But that doesn’t affect how we do the job.

A few days ago, I was lucky enough to attend a concert with my fellow 40-year-old teenagers of a performance from ‘90s goth-pop stalwarts Stabbing Westward. The opening band that night was, you guessed it, Dichro. I won’t get into all the precursors that set their stack against me, but by the end of the night, I had overcome musical misogyny and pessimistic assholisms (™) to helplessly fall in love with this band live. And I was not alone; as a casual observer, I would have to estimate at least seventy percent of this audience swooned under the guise of Charmaine Freemonk and her friendly collection of highly talented miscreants. I was there for entertainment purposes only, but being lucky enough to bare witness to not one but two powerhouse bands in one evening, I knew it needed to be conveyed properly to the people. So, I wrote an article, the band saw it, a few conversations happened in a day, and now I’m sitting comfortably in my home studio with an advanced copy of the aforementioned debut Stained Glass. This is why your regular dietary sustenance of death, black, thrash, and blegh! metal has briefly been interrupted by this tale of bluesy alternative goodness.

Before getting into the album, a few last words to say about Dichro. Charmaine Freemonk has a vulnerable strength to her that comes across in every note, every movement and motion, every intended flick of the wrist or shake of the finger. In person, she is a charming, lovely, sweet and sensitive person who seems to radiate every meaning of the word “joy.” She is both the art and the artist; enigmatic and adorable. The band, however, is a killer’s row of exceedingly talented musicians - two of which I’d known from another Pittsburgh-area band; one that I have seen several times live against my will and that I simply do not care for. But here, the guitars are slick and elegant; the bass is funky and fuzzy when it needs to be, and a somber and growling low end when it doesn’t; the drums are tight and deliberate; it mixes, it blends and envelops - everything works here the way it should. There is not a weak link anywhere in the Dichro fence, which is a rare claim to make and a rare thing to find.

Lastly, the astonishing fact that Dichro formed during the pandemic, and as such, has only existed as a band for small handful of years. This is mind-blowing to me, given how seasoned and polished their sound is. This is the kind of elaborate collaboration you find in groups working and crafting and creating diligently together for twenty years – not friggen four as a side project. This makes me feel like whatever wavelength these musicians are working on as Dichro is logistically and spiritually way above level. So, I set out to review this album as unbiasedly as I can - which is an absurd task, given how smitten I’d been with their performance at a Warrendale rock house just a few short days ago. But I’ve got a job to do, and we always do the job. So, I download the album, run it through a zip extractor, and I prepare to take notes on the eleven tracks ahead that comprise the album Stained Glass.

“In the Cathedral” – you can always tell the age of band members by some of the stylistic choices they make, and “In the Cathedral” shows this within its literal first second of playing. Having your first song start with it ‘already in progress’ probably sounds really cool on c.d. I remember ProPain doing something similar on their debut album. But as a digital download, I repeatedly wondered if I’d started the song wrong, if my playback program skipped, had the download corrupted at one point. Even now, I’m not thoroughly convinced that isn’t the cause of the abrupt, mid-beat start, but since that issue doesn’t exist anywhere else on the record, I’m going to assume it’s a stylistic choice made by people… well… probably around my age. People who don’t automatically consider the non-physical product. And this isn’t necessarily a knock against them. Believe me, some of the things my band and I did on cassette would never pass scrutiny in the digital world. It’s a feature that would work wonders on disc or cassette, maybe work on vinyl, but could definitely cause concern in an .mp3 format. In no way does this seriously affect the song for me, it’s just something that agitated my compulsiveness enough to warrant me bitching about it for a full paragraph. It’s an “old man yells at cloud” moment and I’m already passed it.

At the same time, I’m relieved in a way. In this day and age, I’m more likely to give my attention to a mature and more methodical sound as opposed to, say, teen angst and unbridled craziness. So you can tell from this tidbit that they’re comprised of older players. Nothing wrong with that. There is a legitimate rack and rhythm to “In the Cathedral;” a powerful groove that highlights the grungy British influence of their guitarist. There’s no searching for the hook – it's right there, plain and perfect. Strong. And then her voice comes. Oh! Few times have I been stunned by the clarity of a vocalist, and with such beauty and passion and perfect enunciation of every word, Charmaine has surprised me with her music for a second time in less than a week. And I find that there is a timeless environment to this band; evoking memories of classic alternatives like Letters to Cleo or Garbage, but with a contemporary front that makes it still feel so shiny and new. It is a single song that sprinkles textures and intricate layers throughout, and ends with you eagerly awaiting the start of track two. It’s not fully indicative of the band as a whole, but it’s a soft hand pulling you further in and down the rabbit hole that you willingly and wantingly follow. And I hate that I find “big fucking surprise, man” as charming as I do.

“Strangled” comes on with an energy matching the end of the previous song, so much so that it almost feels like an extension continuing the same story. But then we find our way to a driving and heavily-distorted guitar and another stellar example of her entrancing vocal cadence, and “Strangled” quickly becomes a different song entirely – all by itself. Dichro has a sound purely their own. They operate within specific confines and it works. I cannot tell you one band or another that I can pinpoint as their heaviest influence, as it seems to be a complicated juxtaposition of so many of the bands I knew and loved growing up melding into the Dichro sound. Son of a bitch, I might really like this - an opinion I keep while moving on into “Exhale.” Again, for a brief moment, it feels like an extension of the previous song, and then as soon as it does, it doesn’t, and it’s something new again. Whoever produced this record deserves a nice cold Guiness and a handjob (not it). And then comes the chorus – the dueling dual harmonics of multiple female voices. It’s strange and engrossing and I love it. And what I love the most about it is… you don’t hear it again. This effect is not repeated once more for the duration of Stained Glass, which makes the inclusion here all the more special and spatial. It’s a bonus, not a feature. I love that.

Stained Glass plays like a movie. There’s a natural progression that pushes forward, leaving everything behind it in the past. Track two feels like it doesn’t need track one anymore. Track three has walked away from both of them, and track four is giving those other three the finger. This is how the album breathes, and it is fucking fascinating. “The Reclamation” harkens memories of the snarky rage in Jagged Little Pill, and seeing that the next song was an absolute favorite of mine from the show fills me with a repressed excitement. I’d been WAITING to hear “One Lane Bridge” again after hearing it played Sunday night (a song with such a lasting impact that I was able to quote the chorus almost verbatim in my article mentioning the performance), so when VLC clicks over to track five, I adjust the volume louder on the player, my laptop, and my speakers, ready to be engulfed.

This was a mistake.

The band knows there’s something special about “One Lane Bridge.” Hell, it was their final song on Sunday night, and no band has ever ended with anything other than a complete banger. The problem with going into the studio knowing you’ve got a great song on your hands is your immediate tendency to overproduce it and try to make it bigger and better than it needs to be (or even could be), and that’s exactly what happens here. There’s been a lot of parsley added to the dish, and you find yourself wanting to brush it away to get to the sandwich underneath, but with a song, any kind of song, you’re stuck with it how it’s presented to you, no substitutions. The synth solos, for one, are mixed so loud and so far to the front, you actually lose track of the band at several points in the song – having to wait until the damn thing calms down so you can find the pulse again. And the beat, I like it a lot, but I swear there are multiple instances of the vocals being mixed in a fraction of a step too late. It hits the ear weird up until the final chorus, where it finally seems to be blended in at the right timing. I’m disappointed. Not because it isn’t a good song – it’s a great song – but I know what it was live and this ain’t it. I’m still left feeling like I haven’t heard “One Lane Bridge” since Sunday, but now knowing the only way to satiate my desire is to hunt them down and catch them live once again. Which…. yeah, okay, not the worst thing in the world. I’ll shut up.

But here is where I broke the journalist’s code. The cardinal rule.

I looked at the song list. I see it – “Diner Du Jour.” I think “oh, cute, they used a French name. That could be fun…” but I’m wrong. They didn’t use a French name. It’s a French fucking song. It is a song… done… in French. And as soon as the opening lines of her flawless and haunting Édith Piaf voice comes beckoning through the speakers, je fond comme du beurre laissé au soleil. Oh my god, who does this?! In the Stained Glass movie, we have clearly reached the second act, and it is so dense and different from the restrained rage and playfulness of the first half that I almost feel like I’ve been blindsided by a comedy becoming a drama. I didn’t see it coming. And so, I begin texting people; Sarah, Jasmine and Jade, Bryce, Ashton (yup), and a few others, and before long, I have a single .mp3 flying around the globe. And granted, they didn’t have the benefit of a drastically different prelude five songs beforehand, but almost every single message came back the same: HOLY SHIT, WHO IS THIS BAND?!

That band is Dichro. And their debut album, Stained Glass, comes out next month.

I could go on and on here, especially since I’ve taken detailed chickenscratch for every single song on the record, but all you’ll find is the repetition of phrases like… “fascinating vocal rhythms,” “dynamic shifts,” “enthralling,” even “friendly sounding,” along with “wow,” “ethereal,” and many positive expletives. As the album continued – track by track – I kept waiting for the quality to dip-off, and it’s around “Mercy” that I realize what a phenomenal acoustic show this band would have. Every song here is so distinctly them but succinctly different, and my final note on the final song reads “This feels like the end of a movie. I see Reese Witherspoon credits going by. This is Tank Girl. This is Airheads. This is excellent.”

The magazine asks for an article of “at least 600 words” when you’re reviewing an album. This one is going to end around 2,600. I used to say that I write more if I don’t like you, but Dichro has proven me wrong here a final time. My feelings about this record would border on the embarrassing. In the seventy hours that I’ve had possession of it, I have raved about Stained Glass and Dichro to everyone I’ve talked to, texted, or personally encountered (when appropriate; the arresting officer didn’t seem all that interested). I………. yeah, I love it. Charmaine Freemonk sings with a type of attitude you just don’t encounter in music – using phrases that inspire a… strange sense of honesty and urgency. Her inflections are otherworldly, at times reminding you of Diva Plavalaguna from The 5th Element. She has the voice of a siren. I actually mean that; if I heard this voice in a forest, I would follow it without question and something horrible somewhere would kill me.

Every, and I mean every, band member deserves their own brand of sharp accolades. The drums, the bass, the guitars, the synths – it’s all just so good! Goddammit. Embarrassing. It is embarrassing to like something as much as I’ve liked this. And them. I’ve even had multiple listenings across multiple days, just to be sure it was hitting me the third, fourth, fifth time as it had the first. And it does. But! I don’t want to end this article “happy.” No. No, there’s been far too much happiness in this article for my liking. I am a journalist and we must end with drama! Anger! Rage! And here it is: if this band doesn’t become something big something fast, I am going to be fucking pissed.

In all seriousness, the album’s great. The band is great, their style and presence – it’s all very enjoyable and pleasantly lasting. The flaws are there enough to keep it from being “perfect,” but if you’re a fan of the genre, if you enjoy new bands on their way up, you would be doing yourself a terrible disservice to not check them out. The band is Dichro. Their album, Stained Glass, comes out next month. For a TL;DR, I can sum up my feelings here in four words…

I am a fan.