Black Lung is the hard-edged dark tech work of Australian techno experimentalist, screen composer (The Hard Word) and DJ David Thrussell, also known for his work as Snog or in his duo with Pieter Bourke called Soma. In Black Lung Thrussell likes to direct his sounds, giving them a form of thematic unity. The last record was a concept album about meat and the Coming of the Dark Age would be difficult to view as anything other than an indictment on greed, oil, and the subsequent warmongering to support these notions. In short concepts directly related to the here and now. The inner slick even features an academic essay entitled Eating Fossil Fuels. And when these disturbing concepts are linked to the brooding darkness of the music one could surmise that Thrussell possesses a bleak view of the world at present. And just to ensure we don’t miss the point there are track titles such as Sins Of Megalopolis, The Great Automobile Hunt and Towards The Petra – Apocalypse. The music is relatively hard and dark, though quite atmospheric and cinematic techno with a peculiar experimental bent. Armies of Oil for example has an electro melody slightly Middle Eastern in tone stomped by a dense mechanical layer of static and hard machinery. Though like all of Thrussell’s work The Coming of The Dark Age is seamlessly crafted, this time over a shifting bed of genres, complex sounds and structures arranged in a deceptively simple manner, where the space only unfolds and reveals itself after repeated listens.
Bob Baker Fish
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