Welcome to the world of Dismay, the young fictional hero of this podcast whose girlfriend, Karen, dies in a frenzied attack as he watches helplessly and goes on what turns out to be a journey of self discovery.

Our hero jumps from one drama to another as he endures the attentions of the faceless man out to kill him and meets a whole host of unsavoury of characters along the way but with each meeting he learns more about himself and a world he never knew existed. The story is a dark and engaging one, complimented by an eclectic mix of music to help smooth things along and aid the story telling process. Listen on and you begin to realise that there is more to the music than just filling the gaps, there is an underlying theme to the carefully chosen tracks, an education of the soul, of the nicer things in life and that hope lives on.

Once you’ve got hold of the storyline you will find yourself happily melting into the music, punctuated only by the quiet narrative allowing you time to reflect ready for the next round of podsafe music that soothes you on that tiresome journey home. This is the most relaxed I have ever felt after listening to any podcast and is ideal for winding down at the end of the day or relaxing on a rainy Sunday afternoon, appropriately the sound of rain is an ever present companion in the backround as the story is told.

Think of a melancholy Woody Allen playing the narrative in Sin City and you get the idea of how this podcast sounds and feels.

At first the audio quality is quite poor and it’s difficult to make out what our hero is saying especially with the rain in the backround, but after the second episode this quickly improves as our narrator becomes more adept at conveying the story concisely and then lets the music do the hard work, much for the better.

With so many podcasts at the moment trying to grab your attention with in your face presenters and an overwhelming amount discussion based shows available, its nice to see someone doing a show that can be called a drama. Dismay simply disarms you with its subtle tones and carefully chosen music that carry you away to a distant place without you even realising in this 25 minute slice of serenity.

An excellent podcast, it’s not easy making good original content and Dismay deserves all the critical acclaim they will undoubtedly receive.

A podstar in the making.

Format: Drama
Content: Story/ Music
Rating: 8/10
Length: 25 minutes
Codec: MP3
Frequency: Once a week

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 11th, 2006 at 5:47 pm by Daniel Sussex and is filed under Podcast Reviews. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.