Life Among the Rust dips into and out of audible oxidation, revealing along the way its story of curious, exploratory and emotive electronics.
Chang Terhune, fellow contributor and prolific electronic music savant, continues in his quest to elicit strange and effective new sounds from his sonic artillery. On the last go-around we saw Cathode Ray Tube exploring robust sound scraping filled with dub infestation. Here, he designs with a more refined brush, creating a balance between Artificial Intelligence-era electronica hues (“Talking to a Giant,” “The Unusual Symmetry”) and hypnotic-industrial (“Trudge Lightly,” “Dead Below the Echoes”) with skewed ambient-techno splashes (“Abundance,” “Dogjaw.”)
Chang’s CRT moniker has taken a few sidesteps over the years, never quite content with one genre path, but instead letting the music go wherever it needs to. As a result, Life Among the Rust dips into and out of audible oxidation, revealing along the way its story of curious, exploratory and emotive electronics. Bola’s earlier works come to mind where dark polyrhythmic tentacles meander and pulse—perhaps best defined as IDM’s glory years. Ravished by analogous echoes and reverberating melodies (“Lush Life” being a prime example), this album slowly inches its way to the top of our year-end favorites. If this is life among the rust, then it’s a beautiful place to be.
Life Among the Rust is available on Component.
