Our Subatomic Earth - Underscore (2010)

Release text: "The Earth is on fire. I cry out to you from my state of weakness, where the slate crumbles beneath the flesh, leaving a void, hollowed shell like that of a distant crustacean. I cry out to you, wherever your bunker lies beneath this unyielding earth, safe from the distorted, abstract woes of supreme mortal justice. Whether you are heavenly man, heavenly woman, or of absolute sin as I am in essence, I cry out to you. The Earth is on fire.

The Earth is on fire, but nothing is smoking. The incessant immolation sears not at the hearts, but the souls of the grieving, whose pleads fall upon a deaf congregation. Though they have ears, they are not listeners; rather, they do when told like negligent drones. Whether they own computers, televisions, or even car stereos, they are not listeners, and nothing is smoking.

What is smoke, but a visible consequence, merely appearing after the damage is done? What then is fire, but a chemical process, smoldering bodies to carbonaceous debris? The Earth is on fire, and nothing is smoking yet.

In every dispute, they followed God's intent. When you were an infant, they gave the world weapons; when you were eleven, they went to the desert; when you could gamble, they went back again; and today your country, sweet land of misery, looked to the serpentines and left you to drown.

The Earth is on fire, and it is smoking; you were just too indoctrinated to see."

1. Underscore I (10:06)
2. Underscore II (7:14)
3. Underscore III (4:44)
4. Underscore IV (8:56)

This was fully recorded, mixed, and mastered at The Homestead between December 28, 2009 and January 5, 2010. All instrumentation and production are attributed to Nic Ross and released under a Creative Commons license.

Physical copies with additional artwork and instrumentation can be purchased from http://store.modicum.us.

Genre: Post Metal, Post Rock, Post Hardcore

Preview:


Myspace
LastFM
Download

Other releases

Our Subatomic Earth – Infinite (2009)

Der Mond ist letzlich ein großer Haufen Dreck. Und wunderschön. Ausserdem warten seine geografischen Bezeichnungen geradezu auf eine musikalische Umsetzung. Haben sich jedenfalls Our Subatomic Earth aus (Land) gedacht und so liest sich auch die Tracklist zu deren neuem Album „Infinite“ wie das who-is-who einer Mondkarte. „Mare Crisium“ (Meer der Gefahren) und „Oceanus Procellarum“ (Ozean der Stürme) um nur zwei zu nennen.

Umgesetzt wurde das Konzept der lunaren Unendlichkeit von Schmutz und Schönheit durch Klangwelten, die unvermeidlich zwischen Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor einerseits und älteren Neurosis und Isis andererseits angesiedelt sind. Eine eigene unverwechselbare Note erhält dieses Album aber durch seine Live-Atmosphäre. Der rauhe Sound hat Proberaum-Charakter, wodurch das Album insbesondere in den flächigeren Momenten eine unfassbare Intensität gewinnt, während es leider in den eher riff-dominierten hardcorelastigen Sequenzen an Kontur verliert und sich dann fast in kracherner Beliebigkeit verliert. Das ist sehr schade, denn auch diese Passagen hätten eigentlich, vor allem wegen ihrer Durchdachtheit ein Lob verdient.

Das Album ist deswegen auch sicherlich nicht jedermanns Sache, wie sein Thema ist sie nun mal ein Batzen aus elegantem Dreck, gewagt und alleine deshalb mindestens ein Reinhören, wenn nicht sogar ein Liebgewinnen wert.

___________________________________________________________

At last, the moon is nothing but a big bunch of dirt. And it is beautiful. Moreover, its geographic names are just waiting for a musical adaptation. These must have been the thoughts of Our Subatomic Earth from (Land), therefore, the tracklist of their new record “Infinite” could be read as the Who-is-Who of a lunar map. Only to mention “Mare Crisium” (See of Menace) and “Oceanus Procellarum” (Ocean of Storms).

The concept of lunar infinity of dirt and beauty works through soundscapes, settled between Mogwai and GY!BE on the one hand and elder Neurosis and Isis on the other. This records receives its very own note first of all through its live-atmosphere. The raw sound has got rehearsal room quality, which leads to unknown intensity in its aerial moments. Unfortunately the same sound leads in riff-dominated hardcore passages to a loss of contour and sometimes nearly to a blatant vacuity. What is a pity, because also these parts should be praised because of their cleverness.

This is why the album certainly will not suite everybody’s taste. It simply is like its concept a lump of elegant dirt, brave and worth to check it and maybe also to fall in love with it.

Preview:


Genre: Post Hardcore, Experimental, Post Metal
224 kbit/s (CBR)
(32:23)

Label
Myspace
Download

Our Subatomic Earth - Nothing EP (2009)

"Following a tragic, last-minute hard drive collapse, the source files for the majority of this EP were lost forever. Fortunately, several of my close friends had demos of my songs still sitting on their computers, allowing me to piece it back together into this distorted state. For those who can get past the noise, thank you for listening. This has been a rollercoaster." - Nic

Gott sei Dank hatte da noch jemand diese Demos auf dem Rechner, denn sonst wäre dieser Post-Rock/Post-Hardcore/Sludge-Bastard eventuell vom Antlitz dieser Erde verschwunden, und das wäre meiner Meinung nach sehr schade.

Zuweilen melodiös verspielt und zuweilen wuchtig auf den Punkt zielend sind diese vier Songs, brutal und wunderschön zugleich. Nic Ross, Mastermind und einziges Mitglied der Band, hat mit dieser EP voll ins Schwarze getroffen. Immer, wenn die Post-Rock-Parts drohen, langweilig zu werden, tritt er entweder aufs Gaspedal oder er reißt das akustische Lenkrad um 180° herum... und genau das ist etwas, was mir sehr gut gefällt und im Post-Rock viel zu wenig passiert.

Also, liebe Leserinnen und Leser, mein Fazit lautet: Runterladen, anhören und dann am besten gleich die Infinite EP bei Modicum Of Silence für 5$ kaufen!

___________________________________________________________

Thank god some of his friends still had those demos on their hard-drives, because it they didn't,

I would have never heard that bastard child of post rock, sludge and hardcore... and if you ask me, that would be a shame.

With their both melodic and sometimes very straight forward parts, these four songs are equally as beautiful as they are brutal. Nic Ross, mastermind and only member of this band really hit the spot with this EP. Everytime the post rockesque parts are in danger of becoming really boring he just goes to overdrive or does a 180° turn and heads for a completely different direction... and that is something I really like and tend to miss in a lot releases from the post rock sector.

At last,the only recommendation I can give to you, dearest reader, is the following: download it, listen to it and then, you can buy his new output called Infinite for a lousy 5 bucks at the Modicum Of Silence webstore. Enjoy!

Genre: Sludge / Post Rock / Hardcore / Ambient
320 kBit/s (CBR)
(21:53)

Preview:


Myspace
LastFM
Modicum Of Silence
Download

PW: postrockcommunity.blogspot.com

Our Subatomic Earth – IS (EP) (2009)

Our Subatomic Earth ist ein neues Home-Recording-Projekt von Nic Ross, bekannt durch sein Elektronik-Solo-Projekt gotikplage und die Band Telemetrics. Zeigte er sich bei den eben genannten eher von seiner elektronischen bzw. progressiveren Seite, bewegt er sich mit Our Subatomic Earth mehr in der Post-Rock-Ecke mit starken Ambient-Anteilen und Hardcore-Vocals, an die man sich allerdings erstmal gewöhnen muss. Herausgekommen ist dabei eine knapp 20 minütige 4-Track EP namens „IS“. Das erste Lied „(beauty)“ dient als Einführung und ist sehr ambientartig mit Spoken Words versehen. Bei „Constellation Man“ glaubt man zunächst, es befindet sich plötzlich ein anderes Album im Player, da der Kontrast zum ersten Song enorm ist. Denn ohne Umschweife geht es hier direkt zur Sache: Knarzende Gitarren, polternde Drums und wilde Vocals treiben ihr Unwesen, allerdings dauert dies nicht mal 2 Minuten an, bis ein längerer, ruhiger Part beginnt und Zeit zum entspannen gibt, bevor es wieder rund geht. Das kann sich wirklich hören lassen! Der Titeltrack „Is“ beginnt sehr ruhig verwandelt sich aber in seinem Verlauf zu einem wüsten Durcheinander, nur um dann wieder abzuebben. Die Dynamiken sind hier klar verteilt und viele, kleine Sounds wurden gut versteckt. Das gefällt mir wirklich sehr gut. Track 4 „(sublime)“ dient dann als Outro einer wirklich sehr gelungenen EP, die wirklich sehr viel Spaß macht. Ich hoffe, es gibt bald mehr!



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Our Subatomic Earth is a new home-recording-project of Nic Ross, formerly known by his electronics solo project gotikplage and the band Telemetrics, in which he showed himself on the one hand from his electronic side and his more progressive side on the other hand. Our Subatomic Earth is more resident in the Post-Rock genre with strong portions of Ambient with Hardcore-Vocals, to which you have to attune yourself to in the first place. The outcome is a 20 minute long 4-track EP called „IS“. The first song „(beauty)“ is an introduction with ambient elements and spoken words. When „Constellation One“ is crushing in you believe, that there’s suddenly another album in the player, since the contrast is enormous to the first song, because it goes directly to the thing: Noisy guitars, rumbling drums and wild vocals are walking abroad. However, this persists just for 2 minutes, until a longer, calm part begins, which gives time to rest a bit, before it goes again. Sounds really great! The title track „Is“ begins very calmly and transforms in its process to a wild disorder, to only die down in order again. The dynamics are distributed very well and many, small sounds are well hidden in this song. I really like it very much. Track 4 „(sublime)“ serves as an outro of a very nice EP, which makes much fun to listen to. I hope there will be more soon!

Preview:

Myspace

LastFM

Modicum Of Silence Netlabel

Download