Tom Osman in case you weren’t aware is a writing colleague over here at Ghost Cult and looking at the albums he’s reviewed previously, I can see he has a tendency towards for the most part the more esoteric and avant-garde as evidenced by names such as REZN, Fågelle, Soothsayer Orchestra, Holy Fawn and Black Magnet. Prior to Industrial State of Mind (Drama Recorder), Tom had recorded and released the so much for all in a day’s work album in the early part of 2022.
This project sees him providing words in a collaboration with the mysterious Canadian experimental musician Existent/Nonexistent. The cover art by Sid is, according to the album’s Bandcamp notes, “a reimagining, plundering and processing of Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette”, it also features a Germanic style script to boot which doesn’t seem surprising for a project of this nature; indeed indicative of some potentially uneasy listening that lies in wait for us. Industrial State of Mind is also being released by the Spanish-based Drama Recorder label.
‘Dominoes’ reminds one of the delicious Dark Ambient sounds perpetrated by the mighty Lustmord with Tom narrating in a soothing Alan Watts fashion. As someone who is a fan of the former, this is a track that definitely appeals to the aural senses, a meditative, contemplative yet unsettling piece. It’s not the first time I have encountered music with a spoken word accompaniment as Enablers and Pound Land can attest to, and this track while less ‘conventional’ than those artists (and that takes some doing), nonetheless still makes for a decent start to the album.
‘Little Things’ has a Drone quality not unlike Sunn O))) in some respects while Tom himself reminds me somewhat of the eccentric brilliance of Julian Cope. In fact, it’s a track that wouldn’t have been totally out of place on Sunn’s fantastic 2003 album White1 which nodded to ambient music but still remained resolutely heavy and ominous.
The album’s shortest track at over three and a half minutes ‘The Wonder’ taps into Tangerine Dream‘s early work, that is before the dreadful hippy New Age noodling started taking over. There are certainly cosmic Space vibes coming through and the distorted vocals help to complete this effect, meanwhile ‘Limbo’ is like an Alfred Hitchcock movie both with the sense of mystery it evokes as well as the Bernard Hermann inflections of the score (for want of a better term) making it superbly engrossing and captivating simultaneously.
I believe Osman lives in Berlin and ‘Hills’ features a conversation he has (at least I think it’s him) with an elderly German lady while the background music possesses an almost ecclesiastical feel that imbues the track with an otherworldly spiritual quality, and finally the mammoth – at nearly twenty minutes long – ‘Hidden Voices’ is positively cinematic and akin to Stanley Kubrick‘s 2001: A Space Odyssey and perhaps also A Clockwork Orange (some Wendy Carlos synth-action here fo’ sure). In fact, if Brian Eno‘s wondrous Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks ticks your boxes then you may also get a massive kick out of this instrumental. A profoundly epic and appropriate way with which to conclude proceedings.
Something a bit different for regular readers of Ghost Cult then, as someone who is well versed in Dark Ambient and Noise weirdness, I thought it made for an intriguing listen. A little more melodic and approachable than your standard release of this type, it marks an effective gateway into the aforementioned genres, should you care to venture further into them.
Buy the album here:
https://dramarecorder.bandcamp.com/album/industrial-state-of-mind
8 / 10
REZA MILLS