Luwayne Glass, better known as Dreamcrusher, is a Brooklyn-based

noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

musician from

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the List of cities in Kansas, most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397, ...

. Dreamcrusher has been the subject of features in ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'', ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'', and '' FADER''; praised in ''

SPIN Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'' and ''

VICE A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...

''; and was featured in a mini-documentary for

PBS Digital Studios PBS Digital Studios is a non-profit organization through which PBS distributes original educational web video content. Based in Arlington, Virginia, it comprises both original series and partnerships with existing YouTube YouTube is ...

' Sound Field. Dreamcrusher's work has also been discussed in scholarly articles in the fields of musicology and queer/affect theory.

Early life and career

Glass, who is

non-binary Non-binary or genderqueer Gender identity, gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gende ...

, began making what they describe as "nihilist queer revolt musik" as a teenager sharing tracks on Myspace. After years of touring and over twenty independent releases, Glass moved to New York City in 2015. The same year, Fire Talk Records released Glass's ''Hackers All of Them Hackers'' under the Dreamcrusher name to broad acclaim: the release was included in Impose's Best Albums of 2015 and SPIN's Best Avant Albums of 2015, with VICE writing that the EP "could be the most important noise record of the year". In 2016 Dreamcrusher was included on the

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

compilation ''

NOISE Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

'' alongside artists including

Merzbow is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by Masami Akita, best known for a style of harsh noise music. Since 1980, Akita has released over 500 recordings and collaborated with numerous artists. The name Merzbow comes from the German dada a ...

clipping. Clipping (stylized as clipping.) is an American experimental hip hop group from Los Angeles, California. The group consists of rapper Daveed Diggs and producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes. History Diggs and Hutson met in grade school, ...

Melt-Banana Melt-Banana is a Japanese noise rock band that is known for playing extremely fast noise rock and hardcore punk mixed with experimental, electronica and pop-based song structures. Since forming in 1992 the band has released ten albums and toure ...

Wolf Eyes __NOTOC__ Wolf Eyes is an American experimental music group from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1996 by Nate Young. Currently a duo, Wolf Eyes are a prominent act within contemporary noise music. They have collaborated with a variety of artists fro ...

, and

Pharmakon In critical theory, pharmakon is a concept introduced by Jacques Derrida. It is derived from the Greek source term φάρμακον (''phármakon''), a word that can mean either remedy, poison, or scapegoat. In his essay "Plato's Pharmacy", Der ...

. They are also featured on hardcore punk band

Show Me the Body Show Me the Body (commonly abbreviated as SMTB) is an American post-hardcore band from New York City, formed in 2009. They have released three full-length albums, each drawing influence from genres such as hip hop, noise music and sludge metal. ...

's "collaborative mixtape" ''Corpus I'', as well as in a music video accompanying the 2017 release. ''Grudge2'', released in 2018, further solidified Dreamcrusher's reputation as "one of New York’s finest noise mutants". The EP's tracks include "Youth Problem," featuring vocals by

Alice Glass Margaret Osborn (born 25 August 1988), known professionally as Alice Glass, is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She is the co-founder and former frontwoman of the electronic band Crystal Castles. In 2014, she embarked on a solo career. She rel ...

Crystal Castles Crystal Castles was a Canadian electronic music group formed in 2006 in Toronto, Ontario, by songwriter-producer Ethan Kath and singer-songwriter Alice Glass. Crystal Castles was known for their chaotic live shows and lo-fi music, lo-fi melanc ...

. Dreamcrusher released two full-length albums in the summer of 2020. May's ''Panopticon!'' was included in

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

Acid Test's Best Albums of 2020, ''Entropy'''s Top 10 Albums of 2020, Post-Trash's Best of 2020, and ''

Mixmag ''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was printe ...

''s Albums of the Year. One month later, they released the full-length mixtape ''Another Country'', which was included in Afropunk's 2020 in Review. In October 2020,

' Sound Field aired a mini-documentary on Dreamcrusher, titled "The Untold Story of Noise and Experimental Music". Recorded in Brooklyn, New York during the

pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...

, the episode features a socially-distanced interview and live performance at

Saint Vitus Vitus (), whose name is sometimes rendered Guy or Guido, was a Christian martyr from Sicily. His surviving hagiography is pure legend. The dates of his actual life are unknown.Basil Watkins, ''The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical ...

Performance style

Dreamcrusher is known for a live performance style that is interactive, high-engagement, and multi-sensorial, with ''FLOOD'' magazine describing their live show as "a full-on, full-body sensory experience". They say in interviews that they prefer "an exchange with the audience" rather than providing an isolated "spectacle," "like eyeballs are on me, but there’s not an interest"; they move through the crowd rather than performing onstage, and often serve as the source rather than object of a show's lighting, wearing a

strobing Jerkiness (sometimes called strobing or choppy footage) describes the perception of individual still images while watching a motion picture. Description Motion pictures are made from still images shown in rapid sequence. Provided there is suf ...

headlamp that illuminates those in the audience. Those praising Dreamcrusher's live performances often acknowledge that this combination––of high volume, unpredictable movement, and even flicker vertigo––can be jarring, producing feelings of disorientation and vulnerability. Scholars Shoshana Rosenberg and Hannah Reardon-Smith frame the means and aims of Dreamcrusher's "affective atmosphere" as "electronics and harsh vocals (often screamed into the face of their audiences) to explore queerness, experiences of violence, and feelings of societal and relational abjection", but write that the resulting "psychophysiological states" can be transformative, generating "an ethics of care, through mutuality, solidarity and empathy". Similarly, David Farrow considers Dreamcrusher part of a music community in which explorations, performances, and even productions of pain can forge a "queer kinship" of "social connections that extend beyond performance".

Discography

Albums

EPs

References

{{reflist American experimental musicians American electronic musicians American noise musicians Musicians from Kansas American queer musicians Living people American non-binary musicians LGBTQ people from Kansas Year of birth missing (living people) Musicians from Wichita, Kansas 21st-century African-American musicians 21st-century American LGBTQ people