"Starting with the album title," states Monika H. (Monika Heidemann), "A lot of the music and lyrics start with dreams I have that are interesting to interpret and then develop." The cryptic title displays the mystery of a collection of tracks characterized as dreamy, psychedelic avant-rock with jazz fringes.

Monika H.'s critically acclaimed 2006 indie debut Bright was chosen one of the Top Ten Albums of the Year by the Boston Phoenix and earned her praise from many corners of the indie music community, but she has long preferred to think compositionally in forms and shapes rather than styles. She's always evolving, digging deeper into her musical upbringing that included folk and classical music.

Continues Heidemann, "My recent shift from a jazzier vibe to a more eclectic, electric rock sound happened simply because I'm constantly changing as a person."

Even though she made an acid trippy, psycho-psychedelic video for her dreamy and hypnotic "Your Doom" to describe a dark, confusing and nightmarish place, Heidemann often prefers that her numerous fans and listeners decide what the ultimate meanings to her songs are.

Still, there are a few favorites on Disguised As Umbrellas, We Slept that she enjoys talking about, including the hard crunching, industrial flavored, emotionally explosive (and sexually charged) "Fun To Be Had If You Let It"; the sensual, ambient "Foodstamping" (about the whirlwind that goes through someone's mind when he or she is about to lose everything); the oddly time signatured, grooving and hypnotically percussive "Moonshine," whose lyrics were penned by Irish poet Richard Murphy); and the scorching rock-blast through "Night Spray," a facetious look at people on the subway who consume your senses with their perfume.

Adjective groping aside, the emotionally compelling 11-track collection, recorded and mixed by Joel Hamilton (Giraffes, Dub Trio, Sleepytime, Gorilla Museum) at Studio G in Brooklyn, boasts a darker sound than Heidemann's first album. Good thing, too because her prosey, deeply poetic lyrics are deeper and heavier too.