The Electric Nature - The Place of Dead Roads

Broken into two sprawling soundscapes simply titled “Part One” and “Part Two,” The Place of Dead Roads sees the Electric Nature exploring Michael Potter and company’s darker instincts with a bleak barrage of haunting noise and ominous drones that range from unnerving to downright menacing. In many ways it’s reminiscent of the dark ambient sounds Potter kicked up with 2016’s Dark Sun Sets Circle—all unabating darkness and howling into the abyss—although the aesthetics of this record are even more grim and nebulous.

Recorded at the sadly defunct Mammal Gallery on July 2, 2015, the record unfurls slowly like black mist creeping across a vast, deserted expanse. Any shapes that appear are vague and indistinct—a billowing, formless mass of torpid electronics and sinister post-rock guitars that float along at a glacial pace.

Accompanying Potter on this macabre trek are longtime collaborators Michael Pierce (Wet Garden) and Thom Strickland (Bleachy Asshole), both avant craftsman in their own right, and together the trio push the Electric Nature into an array of imaginative—if somewhat single-minded—sonic settings. Indeed, if there is an overriding atmosphere, it’s one of dread and unease, a soundtrack to the word slowly tearing itself at the seams—which, in light of present history, doesn’t seem that far-fetched.

I’m aware, also, that these are my own interpretations of what amounts to an amorphous deluge of improvisatory ambient. I can’t imagine many circumstances where this record would be listened to in public, or even among close company. It’s music meant to be heard in solitude, and as such it is incumbent upon the listener to take the journey for themselves and see what dark mysteries are uncovered. With a total running time stretching close to half-an-hour, it’s possible to listen to these two tracks ad infinitum and never experience them the same way twice, meaning your relationships with them are constantly shifting and evolving. For most, I imagine, The Place of Dead Roads will be a long and harrowing journey—but where it ultimately leads is up to you.

More Info
Bandcamp: theelectricnature.bandcamp.com
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