Thomas Dimuzio – Louden

DIMUZIO uses the latest digital technology to create his up-to-the-minute concrete collages. In the past he's worked with people like CHRIS CUTLER, TOM CORA, JOHN WIGGINS & DUE PROCESS. His sound is a curious combination of Industrial noise and almost film soundtrack-like composition. Immediate comparisons to the likes of LULL spring to mind, but where MICK HARRIS' project is dark & minimal, this seethes with layer-upon-layer of metal, railway yard ambience, snatched voice, bowed guitar, delay feedback, synthetic strings and an unlimited supply of found sounds which go together curiously well. There are few fixed points of composition - it's more a languid journey through the familiar made alien. DIMUZIO seems to dehumanise those things we take for granted, then compile them in a reorganised, re-humanised way. It's grey, muddy, indistinct territory - as layered, coloured & textured as striated rock formations through which we can find, through accident maybe or calculated design, glimpses of intriguing fossils or maybe even the glint of some gemstone. A lot of this reminds me not only of JERRY GOLDSMITH's music for the original 'Alien' soundtrack (which was later rehashed by JACK HORNER for sundry other films, but never as well), but of the music ANTONYM created back in the early 80s (albeit a more stripped-down, minimal version). Tie yourself into your chair and travel within DIMUZIO's strange and chilling netherworld - it's worth the journey, although I can't guarantee you'll retain your sanity.

Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.