"There’s no way to stop it / Nothing left inside (nothing that is left inside) / Already been decided / By the program in your mind (the television in your mind)..."
From the onset, the potent psych prog rock noir elements of "We Are Dying" by San Diego, California based Drug Hunt amps you up and get's your adrenaline pumping. Liken it to a dunk in an ice bath, or a jump off a cliff into a body of water. The musical arc, narrative here is pumping and gloriously hyperly chunky, it rushes then eases up a bid stirring in dramatic psychedelia, then takes a breath and then runs at full tilt. There are dips into rabid surf punk and wordly progressive rock, there are guitar post rock tones as well as Andalusian / Arabic lead shapes. The vast nature feels like a whirlwind of surprises and subversion.
I want to share the band's thoughts about "We Are Dying".
[We Are Dying is an obituary for the human race as we know it. The culprit is not climate change or other man-made catastrophe, it is our own obsession with scientific progression and the need for development of increasingly complex technological systems. Perhaps the apple that Eve consumed was not a fruit but a taste of a higher intelligence, a technospermia if you will, planted here eons ago by a robotic intelligence. Through milenia of biological evolution we have finally progressed to the point where this robotic seed is ready to sprout. Wrapped in a cocoon not of roots or silk but in a tangle of ethernet cables and server wires.
Once this switch is flipped there is no turning back. And so we stand on the precipice of a new era. One that prayer or ideology cannot stop. This is why we sing "Speak of resurrection / But keep your lips sealed / When the code becomes human / All will be revealed." Certainly a revelation but perhaps not one that we are truly ready to see. The lyrics to this song seem to ring truer and truer the more that time passes by. And who knows maybe the great intelligence will bring about a lasting peace and harmony that the world has not known since before the dawn of man. But the question remains to be seen, what is our place in it. Is there room for imperfect humanity in a perfect world?]
Once this switch is flipped there is no turning back. And so we stand on the precipice of a new era. One that prayer or ideology cannot stop. This is why we sing "Speak of resurrection / But keep your lips sealed / When the code becomes human / All will be revealed." Certainly a revelation but perhaps not one that we are truly ready to see. The lyrics to this song seem to ring truer and truer the more that time passes by. And who knows maybe the great intelligence will bring about a lasting peace and harmony that the world has not known since before the dawn of man. But the question remains to be seen, what is our place in it. Is there room for imperfect humanity in a perfect world?]
The progressive D.N.A here conjures up a host of iconic artists, not in a copycat way at all but in terms of artistic temperament, an amalgam of artists like At The Drive-In, Closure in Moscow, The Fall of Troy, Tomahawk, etc. In the end, "We Are Dying", if a movie, instead of a song is one that you want to see.
Below is the Spotify link and the band's compelling Official Video directed by Gray Morison. I leave you both because while I dig the video, I am not a fan of how music tends to sound on You Tube, so just turn it up.
-Robb Donker Curtius
+++
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6z7JNz9yzREMDBYRotjD2b
https://www.instagram.com/drughuntband/
Drug Hunt, a bizarre quintet of natural seditionists, bastardizes Psychedelia with the orphaned idealism of American Post-Punk and early British Hard Rock. While recording Drug Hunt (out July 5th 2019 via Blind Owl), Drug Hunt captured an array of musical hallucinations in a genre bending fashion that produced a sound entirely their own. As a result Drug Hunt is a searing four song EP that burns like napalm in the echoes of a sixties resurgence. Imagine a Doors album produced by Steve Albini, written by Nick Cave, and fronted by The Stooges at a biker bar.
With two new releases slated for 2019 (Drug Hunt EP July 5th, and a follow-up full length), Drug Hunt is quickly earning a fierce reputation for their prolific output and incendiary live performances, being named one of NBC’s “Top 9 Bands to See Live in San Diego.”
In Southern California, a new wave of Rock & Roll artists is changing the very definition of the California sound. At the helm of the pack is Drug Hunt, howling ravenously under the delirium of a full moon.
No comments:
Post a Comment