“Entrails of the God Machine.”
In its early days, ambient music was an overwhelmingly dreamy, fluffy affair. Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports. Steve Roach’s Structures from Silence. Popol Vuh, Roedelius, Harold Budd, Jon Hassell. You get the picture. Lustmord changed all that. After spending the 80s embedded in the industrial scene (he has recently been sharing photos from those “glory days” on his Instagram), he released 1990’s Heresy. This was arguably the album that defined dark ambient music as we understand it today.
Sure, the ambient music that had come before had its creepy moments – think of Eno’s Ambient 4, Nurse With Wound’s Soliloquy for Lilith or even 1970s Tangerine Dream. But none of it set out to terrify you in the same way that Heresy did. At its worst, dark ambient music can feel terribly cheesy, like the music from a tacky theme park ride. But Lustmord’s discography represents the genre at its finest: atmospheric, but not dull; ambient, but varied; dark, but not distressing (although maybe don’t listen to it at bed time).
And Lustmord’s latest album, Much Unseen Is Also Here, sees the pioneer on as fine a form as ever. Now well into his fifth decade of work, with no sign of slowing down, Lustmord’s music remains immediately recognisable. Busier than most field recording-based drone music, but lacking the clutter of chord sequences and melodies of most dark ambient, Lustmord’s music is spacious, patient and mesmerising.
Lustmord’s previous album, Alter, was consciously focused on the hypnotic vocals of collaborator Karin Park and a spiritual successor to Lustmord’s tragically overlooked masterpiece The Word As Power. It’s very easy to view Much Unseen Is Also Here as a contrasting piece of work. Here, the wide range of instruments and sound sources gives the album a truly expansive feel. Perhaps more than ever before, above all else towers Lustmord’s trademark bass. Nobody harnesses bass in the same way as Lustmord, and this album in particular is flawlessly impeccable in its production and mix. This is music that you feel as much as you listen to and is best appreciated on the biggest speakers you have.
With a runtime of 80 minutes, Much Unseen Is Also Here is one of the longer entries in Lustmord’s discography. Some tracks (“A Shadow Cast Upon The Deep”, “Their Souls Asunder”) are dominated by swirling bassy drones. Others (“Behold a Voice as Thunder”, “Entrails of the God Machine”, “Hence Shall They Be Devoured All Of Them”) are anchored by large bassy thuds; somehow, describing these sounds as “beats” feels disrespectful. Only very occasionally do riffs (“An Angel Dissected”) or melodies (“Invocation of the Nameless One”) play a role in this music. This album feels more ambitious and panoramic than most dark ambient works. Perhaps Much Unseen Is Also Here is to Heresy what Terminator 2 was to the original Terminator?
There will be no surprises for Lustmord aficionados on this album, except that it’s all so damn good. For anyone new to Lustmord, or even to dark ambient music in general, this album is the perfect introduction. Here’s to many more years of Lustmord’s music.
8/10
Much Unseen Is Also Here releases through Pelagic Records and can be pre-ordered here (EU/UK) or here (US).