HUM OF THE DRUID "Into the Dossier / In the Dossier" EP online (2007)

Started by LIFE, April 23, 2020, 07:53:09 AM

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LIFE

"Watching information travel is the ultimate pornography -- the end of the line for all fetish and kink."

The ill-fated HUM OF THE DRUID "Into the Dossier / In the Dossier" 7" EP is now up on Bandcamp. Originally intended to be released in 2007 by brothers-in-arms Mistape Records and A Veritable Whirlwind Of... labels but for various reasons it never saw the light.

https://humofthedruid.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-dossier-in-the-dossier

Conceived and recorded between January and March 2007 in Olympia, WA, the release, both sound and manifesto, was intended to be a criticism of both pro- and anti-technology camps, as well as a criticism of academia, subculture, aesthetic fetishism, identity, and the human compulsion to catalog and categorize information. It was a creative way to express how regardless of technology and era, human tendencies remain the same and we have to recognize that root rather than respond to the decorations that grow from this root.

Given this was an analog industrial noise release with xeroxed artwork, it is naturally a contradiction unto itself but any criticism I make in life is fundamentally a self-criticism so in the end all is as it should be. The manifesto predates terms like "social media", "algorithms", and "smart phones" -- it was a product of the mid-late 2000s though it remains relevant even if I might express myself differently now over 13 years later. The full manifesto is included on the Bandcamp page.

The music requires far less description. Side A is a ton-heavy industrial noise track, perhaps one of the more aggressive and powerful in the HOTD discography. Side B is a cool-down of more subdued industrial atmosphere. This release predated the recording of "Raising the New Wing / Braided Industry" LP and while it isn't necessarily similar, it was recorded using the same 4-track borrowed from Mistape and is mentally and sonically part of that time.

https://humofthedruid.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-dossier-in-the-dossier


LIFE

I've also uploaded all of the 2005 releases to Bandcamp and included self-indulgent commentary below.

https://humofthedruid.bandcamp.com/

All of these recordings were done when I was nineteen and had a bright and clear production quality with more emphasis on analog electronic processing, though you will still hear acoustic sources and physical sensations. It's been about fifteen years since I've listened to any of this and while I don't feel most of it has the atmosphere and direction of later releases, I look back fondly on these recordings because they came from a place of genuine love of sound and learning how to work with different sources. There was less bitterness in my creative attitude and while the material is dark, there is also a shining ascendant quality to much of it.

Bloated Slutbag

Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag