Described by the artists as "Xeno-electronic emissions woven from a blackened blend of technoid deconstructions, harsh noise, post-industrial electronics, and dark alien dronescapes..." "In the Dust of this Planet" is a beautiful and disturbing foray in the world of bleak post-techno from the deepest, darkest reaches of the south of New Zealand.
Tiny Mix Tapes on the album: "Desolation is more than one man can explain. It is experienced differently from person to person; where one would place it as a sole being in an area of complete emptiness and seclusion, another may find desolation in the form of the crumbling infrastructure abused in urban landscapes. Does it speak to isolation or deterioration? Is it felt more as an organic happening or a synthesized event? In the Dust of This Planet asks all these questions in its fearless/fearsome drones. Combining the various stages of drone from the past 30 years (a dash of industrial, a pinch of electronica, a lot of minimalism), MIR set the stage for desolate listening. Though the air is disturbed and the scene is well lit, how you make out the surroundings is up to you. What you will notice is how cold In the Dust of This Planet comes across, really letting you feel the crumbling world which we are killing through our irresponsibility. So yeah, another one of THOSE records. Maybe with the not-so subtle hand of MIR, this time you’ll pay attention."
Sixnoises: "I’m somewhat obsessed with MIR’s In the Dust of this Planet, and it’s my favourite release from End of the Alphabet Records’ roster so far. Admittedly, I am a dark ambient nerd, so I’m predisposed to liking it already. But I think obsessing about the album is really the only appropriate response you can have. It’s so imbued with mystery, so framed by its bleak aura, and so utterly fathomless.
MIR note that In the Dust of this Planet features, “Xeno-electronic emissions woven from a blackened blend of technoid deconstructions, harsh noise, post-industrial electronics, and dark alien dronescapes”. And there’s really nothing more I can add to expand on that.
The album sits, for all intents and purposes, clearly and squarely in the dark ambient and drone camp. However, it’s so much more than any mere assemblage of ambient electronics, even if all those electronics do happen to be pretty damn mesmerising.
Much like the works of fellow multimedia artist Thomas Köner, MIR have ensured that In Dust of this Planet perfectly reflects the environment in which it was created. In this case, it was “the darkest reaches of the south of New Zealand”. And there is an aptly isolated and solitary feel to all of the tracks. Additionally, there’s a sense of almost post-human barrenness that links to that isolation. A sense that MIR’s drones are framing the memories, or perhaps marking the presence, of a society now reduced to ruin.
There’s a haunting and entrancing fragility to In Dust of this Planet, where the sounds therein are at their most diaphanous, and flashes of light peek through the clouds overhead. However, what possesses me so utterly are the shadowy and desolate chasms that the light exposes, and how the album then explores those depths."
credits
released March 1, 2015
Richard B. Keys - analogue synthesis and drum programming
Pedro Torres - granular synthesis / sampling
Beth Hilton - projection / visual materials
Recorded in February 2014 in Harwood, Otago Peninsula.
Cover art by Beth Hilton
Cover design by Olivia Webb
supported by 7 fans who also own “In the Dust of this Planet”
Mocking Solemnity, Death Becomes You, and For Whom the Bell Tolls are great. SUNN O))) certainly don't do cover versions in the way other bands do, for sure! I wonder what Cliff Burton would have thought of it...? The four collaborations with Masami Akita/Merzbow aren't my thing, but if you are into it then you can find further collaboration on CroMonolithic Remixes for an Iron Age.
"Time marches on..." Master of Alchemy
supported by 6 fans who also own “In the Dust of this Planet”
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Facing the East
Ra
The Sun
The SUNN O)))
Elemental Majesty
Void with no mercy
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Makes me think of the lyrics to Slayer's Divine Intervention. Master of Alchemy
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