reviews / 2022

DUSTER - Together

Name: DUSTER – Together
Item: Together
Rating: 7
Author: Matteo Contri

2022 (Numero group)

slowcore

by Matteo Contri

The sound of the earth's movement: that's always been what Duster for this writer. Listening to an album by the Californians is like sensing every single shift of the planet as it moves through space. A slow, natural motion, yet also an exhausting, burdensome one.

The cult slowcore group born in the Nineties - a decade they helped define alongside two genre landmarks that they helped define - has always been masterful at embodying the heaviness of the world, of life, through a sound steeped in sadness and decay. A continuous, progressive crumbling, which they also displayed on the unexpected, self-titled return from 2019.

It's a genuinely astonishing album, this new “Together”, because for the first time the band's sound becomes reconciled and reconciling. The dilation of time it induces is no longer a means of conveying decay, but rather a motion meant to cradle the listener.This sense of reconciliation surely stems from a production that's more sophisticated and defined than the dirty, iconic one of the Nineties. Let's not be fooled, though, because Duster's way of songwriting hasn't changed - the core recipe remains the same as ever, it's the intentions and the pulsing heart of the songs that are different.

To be fair, a few small innovations can be found in this new work from the duo, for instance in the dilations of kosmische musik over an acoustic base on the floating, beautiful “Escalator”, or in the livelier rhythm of “Familiar Fields”, which towards the end also attempts a more distinctly shoegaze.

For the rest, the script seems already written, between riffs grainy and impalpable melodies. Still, a few moments stand out, thanks to a songwriting that never stops surprising, managing to remain clearly distinguishable within such a peculiar genre.

Such is the case with the opening triptych of “New Directions”, “Retrograde” and “N”, which seem to simulate the awakening of a sleeping iron giant shaking off its rust. But the watery softness of “Sleepyhead” and the thunderous cascade of sound in “Making Room” also stand out, and pleasingly so.

Though it occasionally slips into some avoidable longueurs, “Together” is an album of songs that work exactly as they should, and a special mention goes to “Feel No Joy”, a small masterpiece on the record that, programmatically confusing us amid riffs soaked in fuzz, wah and quavering, out-of-phase vocals, brings us back to the old Duster, the ones who, in spite of everything, insist on reminding us not to let our guard down too much, because desolation is waiting just around the corner. And so we'll have to start letting ourselves be slowly carried away again, like souls in torment.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite Sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and the latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

12/05/2022

Share on

This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Matteo Contri, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition