THE ULTIMATE DREAMERS

EN

During the Christmas holidays, you can bet your life that Home Alone will once again be shown on television. Is that the reason why The Ultimate Dreamers are releasing their Kids Alone EP right now? And should this be seen as an indulgence of that tradition, or are The Ultimate Dreamers trying to say that if Kevin McCallister’s parents hadn’t left their child alone at Christmas, we wouldn’t now be stuck with this monstrosity?

Reality is a bit more awkward and far less dramatic. The electro label Alfa Matrix, like its wave sublabel Spleen, likes to release extra EPs when a successful album has come out. And yes, Paradoxical Sleep by The Ultimate Dreamers also caught our attention, with its intelligently constructed wave music that skilfully combines guitars and electronics.

We’ll keep the backstory short here, but based on the reviews and interviews on this website you can explore it in more depth. Between 1986 and 1991, the wave band The Ultimate Dreamers existed in the Walloon town of Lessines. Besides making their own music, they also organised concerts and festivals. After the band split up, singer Frédéric Cotton focused for many years on organising live shows.

Then came the pandemic, and Fred used his free time to gather his old recordings of The Ultimate Dreamers. In 2021, a CD and vinyl release featuring archival material appeared under the title Live Happily While Waiting For Death. At the same time, the band was reformed—initially to promote the old songs live, but gradually also to play new material. Since then, The Ultimate Dreamers have been making Belgian and international stages unsafe once again.

In 2023, the follow-up Echoing Reverie was released, consisting entirely of new recordings, although most of the tracks were still based on compositions from the final years of the original band. Paradoxical Sleep from 2025, on the other hand, consisted solely of brand-new compositions, making it easy to see a clear evolution across The Ultimate Dreamers’ releases.

That evolution is reflected, among other things, in increasingly complex compositions and more perfectionist production (courtesy of Len Lemeire from Implant). At the same time, the simplicity of the early work is preserved by continually recording new versions of “Envoler,” a song whose infectious three chords make it easy to reshape in different styles.

As mentioned, Kids Alone consists of remixes—and rest assured, it really does sound different from the original album. As is often the case, the remixes are more danceable, featuring thick electronic basslines and additional percussion. I assume that Paradoxical Sleep wasn’t necessarily meant to be danceable and focused more on atmosphere, but this EP proves that the same compositions can also be turned into dancefloor bangers.

The new version of “Kids Alone” was created by The Ultimate Dreamers themselves, but the version by Aux Animaux really blows the roof off. “Deafness” and “Spiritchaser” have been given extended versions, with the latter also receiving a solid remix from the Germans of Mängelexemplar. The record closes with yet another version of “Envoler,” this time in Dutch as “Wegvliegen,” remixed by the friend of Kinex Kinex, complete with delightful extra bleeps and even folk guitar and violin.

So yes, it’s simply a companion release to The Ultimate Dreamers’ latest album—but it’s also a very pleasant listening experience, and in fact exactly what I want to hear right now. A video clip was also made for the title track, using old Betty Boop cartoon excerpts, which will hopefully help you avoid thinking about Home Alone while listening to this song.

Xavier KRUTH
14/01/2026

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NL

De Nederlandstalige bespreking kan u HIER lezen bij onze collega's van Dark Entries Magazine!

Xavier KRUTH
14/01/2026

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