Time since last listen: N/A (first listen)
Well, I say first listen, but the ubiquity of massive Italo-house group Black Box in the early 1990s means I've listened to five of the nine tracks on this album already. Yes, there are only nine tracks on this album, and I was already apprehensive about the familiar singles extended to boredom lengths. But the runtime clocks in at 42 minutes, so let's give it a spin.
Track 1 "Everybody Everybody"
The album opens, somewhat oddly, with its third single which only made it to number 35 in Australia, but achieved a more respectable number 16 in the UK. It's not a bad tune, with (like all the other singles bar "Ride On Time") sampled vocals from Martha Wash, who is of course uncredited. If, like me, you're a fan of the 1992 Sega Megadrive game Streets Of Rage II (a.k.a. Bare Knuckle II) and its awesome soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro, you'll see the influence of this song on the game's track "Wave 131" – the music that plays during the opening beach scene of Stage 6.
Differences from other versions: I remember the version used in the music video started with four quick piano glissandos, but this version doesn't have them.
Track 2 "I Don't Know Anybody Else"
The second single, loved it in 1990, still love it. Nobody did house piano like these guys, eh? A phenomenal piece of work, just the right balance of elements, none of it feels weak. This is the first time I saw Katrin Quinol fronting the group, in the video for this song (and on the album cover above). (This is because we in Australia got a very weird Australia-only music video for "Ride On Time", without Katrin in it, which I actually prefer to all other versions of the video.) It got to number 6 in Australia; it deserved higher.
Differences from other versions: This version starts with some bloke counting the song in, instead of the few rapid drum beats, before the vocals start.
Track 3 "Open Your Eyes"
This was the sixth (!) single released from the album, entering the Australian top 100 in March 1992 and eventually getting to number 60. It had a video, but it was just cobbled together from old footage. The song has a synth line that obviously influenced Yuzo Koshiro and his Streets Of Rage video game music in 1991 – the Round 4 music "Keep The Groovin'" has a very similar-sounding melody.
Track 4 "Fantasy"
A cover of an Earth, Wind & Fire song from 1978, released as the album's fourth single in early 1991 and its second biggest hit in Australia, reaching number 3. Katrin wore blue contact lenses in the video. It's not a bad song, but as Smash Hits made clear, Katrin wasn't doing Black Box's vocals; Martha Wash was.
Differences from other versions: This version starts with a short piano intro, instead of that naff spoken word thing you hear in the music video.
Track 5 "Dreamland"
Two minutes of ambient keyboards serve as the title track. It ends rather abruptly to crash into that intro. "Gotta get up, gotta get up, gotta get up..."
Track 6 "Ride On Time"
Arguably Italo-house music's finest moment. Well, I think it is, anyway. An absolute barnstorming single, kept from number 1 in Australia by the bloody stupid B-52s, but it topped the charts in the UK, Ireland and Iceland and went top 10 in 13 other countries – but only peaked at number 19 in its native Italy! Fresh, exciting, different, and just a bit dark, it's still a brilliant tune that has lost none of its appeal in the last nearly-30 years. The album credits a bass player and rhythm guitar player on it; I never would've guessed. It should have opened the album – what an opening salvo that would have been!
Differences from other versions: There are notably two distinct versions of this song: the original recording with sampled vocals from Loleatta Holloway and her 1980 song "Love Sensation", and then, due to legal issues involving royalties, a second version with vocals re-recorded by Heather Small, who you may know as the singer of M-People. Because this album was released before those legal proceedings, it contains the Loleatta Holloway version.
Track 7 "Hold On"
Believe it or not this was the seventh and final single from the album, released in 1992, but it never reached the Australian top 100 so I'm not sure if it was released here. I was surprised when I heard the intro – with it's percussion-only beginning, then the bass line kicking in – it obviously influenced the aforementioned Streets Of Rage track "Keep The Groovin'". I knew that game's soundtrack was heavily influenced by hits from Technotronic and Enigma, but I never heard the Black Box influence until now.
Track 8 "Ghost Box"
An instrumental track that sounds like it could be the soundtrack for a scene in an '80s crime thriller film where a hard-bitten detective makes his way to a seedy neon-lit bar at night in the rain. It also has a sax solo, like "Open Your Eyes". I'm not sure why it's not the final track; it should be.
Track 9 "Strike It Up"
The fifth single, released in early 1991. An appealing piece of Eurodance with a rap that I quite liked; not as hard-hitting as its predecessors, but an enjoyable listen.
Differences from other versions: There are two versions that have variations in the music, but the big difference is in the rap. I was surprised to hear the rap on the album version is different! Not only is the rapper himself different, but the lyrics are as well, with only the first line of the rap staying the same. They must have updated the rap for the single version, because in my opinion that's the superior one.
...so that's Dreamland! Apart from the title track, you shouldn't be dreaming when listening to this. You should be going mental to house pianner keyboards and reminiscing about how effing ace 1990 was.
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