Founded in 2006 by Dutch multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Ruben Vermeulen, Funus blends shoegaze, doom and post-metal into dark, atmospheric soundscapes rooted in introspection and personal reflection. Dreamless Water is a staggering nine-track descent into absolute shadow, pushing the project’s sound into darker and more immersive territory.
The album opens with Dreamless Water, which immediately pulls you into its darker world. It begins with an ambient field recording, followed by a simple guitar riff and dreamy vocals that feel more hypnotic and absorbing than immediately dominant. Together with the synths, it creates a wonderfully hazy atmosphere, leaving you wondering when – or even if – the song is eventually going to kick in. Drums do arrive, but only briefly, before everything settles down again and the song is left resting almost entirely on the crystalline vocals. The second half, however, becomes genuinely heavy, with massive drums bringing to mind post-metal records. The wailing shoegaze guitars are fantastic, too. A great opening track.
The second track, Still Circling Downwards, is, like the opener, over five minutes long, coming in at almost six. It starts out minimalist once again, but around the forty-second mark everything suddenly lifts into great shoegaze. The vocals sit a little further back in the mix here, exactly where they work so well in this genre. The song keeps building gradually, and the middle section has an especially great energy, with the guitars weaving around each other in really interesting ways. I also have to highlight the production here: nothing sticks out unnecessarily, and everything feels exactly where it should be. The song eventually fades into a much quieter ending with acoustic guitar – a really beautiful atmospheric conclusion.
Between Futures and Shadows is the most energetic piece so far, with guitars and drums charging in from the very beginning. The vocals remain drawn-out and lingering, but there is a slightly wilder quality to them here as well. I really enjoy the chord progression, which allows the song to evolve beautifully and makes it feel exceptionally well constructed.
Caged Liberty also starts with a lot of energy, almost veering into rock territory reminiscent of early Queens of the Stone Age or Kyuss. There’s a massive, motoric riff underneath a screaming guitar, creating exactly the kind of atmosphere I’m drawn to. I can easily imagine driving through the Nevada landscape with this blasting in the background. Instrumentally, it’s an outstanding track, and then halfway through, everything completely shifts. The acoustic guitar and gentle vocals create a more nocturnal atmosphere, like walking through the desert under a moonlit sky.
At the centre of the album is its longest track, Hum of Nothing. It begins massively, but at a slower pace, with the vocals becoming especially dreamy and shoegaze-heavy. The whole thing creates an atmosphere that feels closely connected to the album artwork. I find myself imagining being somewhere out in the ocean just before a storm, somewhere between daylight and darkness. There’s something genuinely eerie about it, and the song manages to transmit that atmosphere incredibly well. The ending becomes more frantic, with a soloing guitar adding a nice stoner touch. I really have to praise the guitar tone here – it sounds phenomenal.
The second half of the album begins with the short synth-driven Neon Loneliness, bringing a welcome moment of calm. The song does gradually build, but it retains its interlude-like character, providing a nice breath of fresh air after the weight of Hum of Nothing.
With Fractured Coin, we return to the dusty desert atmosphere. The effected vocals give the song just the right psychedelic edge, while the break at 1:06 is probably my favourite moment on the entire album. It’s a fantastic, frantic burst of energy that completely shifts the track. Definitely one of the album’s highlights.
After the spoken-word interlude When the Heart Sleeps, the album closes with Across the Bridge of Echoes, which stays firmly within the record’s heavy shoegaze territory. I really like the way the sounds of the individual guitars keep changing throughout the track, and I’m particularly fond of the tone of the lead guitar that drifts away around 3:23. Eventually, everything dissolves into noise that once again brings the oceanic imagery of the album cover to mind.
Dreamless Water is a remarkably immersive record. It moves between shoegaze haze, crushing post-metal weight, stoner-rock riffs and quieter, almost cinematic passages without ever losing its sense of atmosphere. More than anything, it feels like a record built around textures and spaces – sometimes vast and heavy, sometimes strangely intimate, but consistently dark and absorbing.
The album is also available in several physical formats, including 12″ vinyl and a 6-panel CD, all of which can be found on Bandcamp:
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