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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Pre/Order Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited Edition /// CD Included /// Shipping to AUS / NZ / JAPAN / UK / EU / USA / CANADA
12" 33RPM Vinyl in Classic White, Outer Sleeve in deluxe 300gsm stock, Black poly-lined inner sleeve.
Note: Vinyl mock-up images shown are representative only.
Side A: 1. I Have No Mouth... 2. The Disinformation Plague 3. The More Confusion...The More Profit 4. Sinister Control Minority
Side B: 1. God Was The First Cop 2. Angstlos 3. A High Cabal 4. The Unreality Industry
Includes album CD Version in clear plastic wallet with 6 Bonus tracks:
Unconvincing Simulations Of Happiness Part II / The More Confusion... The More Profit (Deviant Creation) / The Depopulation Bomb / The Unreality Industry (HypnoBeep Mix) / God Was The First Cop (Nexus6 Reconstruct) / Angstlos (Dreadnaught II Mix)
Maximum of 2 copies per order.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Conspiracy Of One
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
...more
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$47AUDor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Pre/Order Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited Edition /// CD Included /// Shipping to AUS / NZ / JAPAN / UK / EU / USA / CANADA
12" 33RPM Vinyl in Splatter Effect, Outer Sleeve in deluxe 300gsm stock, Black poly-lined inner sleeve.
Note: Vinyl mock-up images shown are representative only.
Side A: 1. I Have No Mouth... 2. The Disinformation Plague 3. The More Confusion...The More Profit 4. Sinister Control Minority
Side B: 1. God Was The First Cop 2. Angstlos 3. A High Cabal 4. The Unreality Industry
Includes album CD Version in clear plastic wallet with 6 Bonus tracks:
Unconvincing Simulations Of Happiness Part II / The More Confusion... The More Profit (Deviant Creation) / The Depopulation Bomb / The Unreality Industry (HypnoBeep Mix) / God Was The First Cop (Nexus6 Reconstruct) / Angstlos (Dreadnaught II Mix)
Maximum of 2 copies per order.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Conspiracy Of One
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
...more
The Conspiracy of One is the seminal electro-brutalism of Black Lung's The Depopulation Bomb and The Disinformation Plague reconsidered.
A stark time-capsule of insectoid paranoia and menace, a sickly syrup of sweating, sonic unease - the seminal Black Lung albums 'The Depopulation Bomb' and 'The Disinformation Plague' can now be considered strikingly prescient works. Profoundly influential, the original 1994, 1995 and 1996 releases have cast a deep shadow over a quarter century of electronic music: their inspiration still keenly felt at the adventurous margins of the experimental, powernoise, illbient, hardcore and dark techno genres. Often imitated in the decades since, the original duo of Black Lung LPs have never been matched for their raw aural power and unsettling atmosphere.
Written and recorded by maverick Australian musician/composer David Thrussell, 'The Depopulation Bomb' was recorded in Thrussell's Elwood (Melbourne, Australia) home studio across August and September 1994, during a hectic time where Thrussell juggled multiple commitments to his vocal outfit Snog (their second album 'Dear Valued Customer' had just been released on a major label and Thrussell had a month-long schedule of daily 9-5 press interviews) and the basic initial compositional process. Thrussell constructed 'The Depopulation Bomb' during the night-time hours only, often on little or no sleep in the dead of 4am - a state that may have contributed to the album's dense, claustrophobic atmosphere and airless, hive-mind sound palette. A quiet consumer of fringe literature, Thrussell took inspiration from the writings of Jim Keith, Alex Constantine, William Cooper and others that described the nascent machinations of the 'Deep State' and the 'New World Order', corporate mind control and occult rituals of media magick and manipulation: concepts that at the time were considered extreme (or even dangerous) but are now an acknowledged part of the uncomfortable mainstream conversation. In the pre-internet era, literature of that kind could only be accessed via obscure mail-order houses or marginal book-sellers like Polyester Books and The Theosophical Bookstores in Melbourne and Sydney or via local magazines like New Dawn and Nexus.
'The Depopulation Bomb' was first released late 1994 on the Melbourne label 'Iridium' (a sub-label of Shinjuku Thief mainman Darrin Verhargen's 'Dorobo' label). Ironically perhaps, because of Thrussell's Snog affiliation, the album was distributed in Australia by Polygram/Universal - a perhaps rare example of creeping, phobo-capitalist dis-ease widely available at shopping malls and suburban plazas. Indeed, the grinding slow-burn electronica of masterpieces like 'Angstlos' and 'God Was The First Cop' (and the contrasting violent percussive nosebleed of the title track) crept through regional and cosmopolitan Australia, producing a harvest of uneasy acolytes.
Early in 1995, the album was licensed to Belgian label KK/Nova Zembla Records (home to the mystic-techno of the Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia and sublime machine-funk of Lassigue Bendthaus, among others). The label was founded by the enigmatic Joseph Verbruggen, an independent record store proprietor who ultimately would spend inordinate amounts of time (apparently) on safari in exotic African locales (though rumours persisted of gun-running and other colourful occupations). Yet more rumours illustrated the somewhat Wild West atmosphere of the time: at one point petulant KK/Nova Zembla artists were alleged to have visited the label warehouse brandishing firearms to encourage prompt payment of long-outstanding royalties and other artists also considered similar rebellious actions.
By late 1995, the 12" single 'The More Confusion...The More Profit' (and the album itself) would become a dark underground/rave sensation, penetrating to the margins of alternative techno, independent and experimental music audiences. Thrussell would soon embark on a multitude of European dates as Black Lung: appearing on television in Italy and Germany, radio from Paris to Prague, playing concerts with icons Alec Empire and Merzbow, appearing at venues that ranged from Roman amphitheatres to East German castles, performing for Bolognian anarchist-collectives and mainline Belgian festivals sponsored (unironically) by cigarette corporations. Black Lung tracks crossed-over into regular rotation at iconic clubs like Paris' Le Gibus and Berlin's Tresor.
Later in the year, Thrussell was compelled to start work on a follow-up LP - 'The Disinformation Plague' - a purer distillation of its predecessor's dystopian themes and raw, Aphex aural-excited brutalism. Across stunning ambient landscapes of dread like 'Unconvincing Simulations Of Happiness Part II' and the opening epic 'I Have No Mouth...' Thrussell pioneered a brittle kind of seething conspiracy/biosphere of ubiquitous disinformation and existential angst, fuelled by shock-capitalism and malevolent media suffocation. Though derided by some at the time as extreme (and essentially unlistenable), a quarter century later Thrussell stands as a prophet, a rogue genius who invented a remarkable body of work that paints the contemporary socio/philosophical/political/occult landscape in stark and haunting terms. A sound manifesto that says more about today than ever before. Immerse yourself. But beware...Thrussell's crisp conspirasphere may lodge itself uncomfortably, and permanently, under your skin.
Singed golden Phoenix, risen relic from an ancient time - this LP charts a near-forgotten internal landscape that now seems to be our unforgiving reality. A gift for the bewildered children of 2020 from the calm waters of the past. Use wisely.
Alvin Lucia 2020 A.D.
credits
released November 19, 2023
Written & Performed By Black Lung / David Thrussell
Programmed and Mixed at Area 51, Melbourne
Originally released by Iridium Records, Nova Zembla / KK Records, and Fifth Colvmn Records
Original Masters by François Tétaz
HypnoBeep & Nexus6 Remixes by Vince Valentini
Remastered by Vince Valentini for Lightarmour Editions
supported by 9 fans who also own “The Conspiracy Of One”
If it wasn't for the four -almost- identical tracks 1,5,8,15 this album would have never triggered my attention. Then I discoverd many remnants of artistical geniality found in classic Black Lung releases in between. As this controversial Nexium cult must have refreshed david thrussels brains and induce next level composing strategies, I quickly acknowledged this album as a top notch addition to his unique repertoire, steering at the front of time, and fully worthy for a release on ant-zen. BWR
Experimental electronic soundscapes steeped in dystopian themes; environmental and societal anxieties vented through industrial and techno. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 15, 2024
