Dreamers of the Ghetto

Appropriately, the first time I heard Luke Jones, the frontman of Bloomington, Ind.’s Dreamers of the Ghetto sing, he sang, “I know your voice/ I hear it from the depths of the void.” That’s a little bit how Jones’ own tone strikes me—a perfect balm, coming from a chilly place of keyboards and mechanical beats, offering redemption and maybe even a little rescue. That song, “Heavy Love,” pulses with icy keyboards and a bassline that dares to be bothered, but Jones’ singing immediately feels like a guidepost, an empathetic bit of reassurance. It’s a voice that immediately demanded more attention. Put simply, Jones—a tall dude with odd hair and his wife, Lauren, and brother Jonathan, for bandmates—can sing better than just about any new frontman you’ve heard in a long time.

It’s not just that Jones can sing; it’s that he does sing, with a bravado and boldness that are inspiring. He delivers his words like scripture, backing them with a certain unwavering belief that they are important. Amid a landscape of diffident or meek singers, Jones is a welcome exception. The band’s debut, Enemy/Lover, is due on Temporary Residence Ltd. in October, and it sounds like the start of something major. Just as Jones sings with an unerring confidence, Dreamers take many of those keyboard sounds you remembered for the first time in years during the chillwave phase and push them to heights that somehow suggest Depeche Mode, Sigur Rós and Talk Talk.

We couldn’t be more excited to have this very special young band on our biggest stage, behind our biggest sound system, on the final day of Hopscotch 2011. —Grayson Currin