Back in the heyday of Tympanik Audio, one of the finest electronic labels to have ever existed, there was one album that was on everyone’s tongue that I couldn’t escape no matter where I went or what I looked at. And that was Hollow Worlds by Comaduster. It’s funny, too, as I wasn’t heavily, heavily involved in industrial music at the time; I had just recently begun to write for Brutal and yet it was so powerful that it broke the barrier and spilled into my small and niche circle of enjoyment. I didn’t pay too much attention to the album at the time as I was a much different person back then, but since my sonic palette has expanded and I found myself slowly wandering back to Hollow Worlds every once in a while and heavily enjoying it. Breathtaking, to say the very least.
And since that time Comaduster has put out and additional two album, 2017’s Solace and 2019’s Darker Matter. But as independent musicians tend to do there was some silence for some time. Six years to be exact. And six years was what it took for Comaduster to release what can be considered a massive magnum opus – Memory Echoes. A vision complete, a concept album that I can’t quite explain. So, stealing straight from Comaduster’s description on his Bandcamp page and in his own words, here’s what Memory Echoes is about.
This record functions simultaneously as a standalone audio experience and a conceptual framework — a sonic artifact that emerged from a speculative science fiction premise in which a universe altering event, the LIMINAL ZERO EVENT, reshapes the very structure of space, time, and memory. This narrative isn’t presented overtly, but rather infused into the music through tone, form, texture, and haunting resonance.
There’s a lot more to it than that that can be read over on the aforementioned Bandcamp page but I am not here to be a loremaster. I’m here to dissect the album and that starts with the title track. Sweeping synths a la a cyberpunk odyssey come into frame gazing upon stars so far away; a sadness and yet hope. A build-up to silence before Comaduster’s soothing voice comes in. Dual whispers; the bass hits, glitching as it does, the synths come back, and there’s a noise wall that forms with everything hitting you at once; clean vocals, screaming straight from black metal, weeping synths, and an overall science fiction vibe.
Liminal Zero bleeds out drum’n’bass antics but has a way of ebbing and flowing in between with bouts of soothing cinematic industrial mechanics whilst Way With Me bounces and stutter between machine-driven synthpop filled with ethereal enhancements and breakdowns.
Black Sun Rays is not one of my favorite songs on the album; I suppose I understand what Comaduster was going for. Acoustic instruments with what sounds like some reversed lyrics and the artist’s crisp electronic wizardry. However the vocals are buried for the most part and I found myself straining my ears to hear Comaduster sing. Pair that with a vocal performance from the Queen of Collaborations herself, Mari Kattman, it’s disappointing that I really couldn’t hear either of them. Thankfully that changes in a collaboration that she also later appears on called Homeward. And even though that song is rougher and more challenging and frantic in its nature with blast beats spilled throughout, I could actually make out Kattman’s voice and enjoy it in comparison. Which is great as she’s one of the best singers in the industrial scene to date.
In between those two collaborations are Signal to Nether, Eternity Array, and Wavelike. Be careful when playing Signal to Nether too loud as the glitchy-effects sound like electronic gunshots or lasers. It’s effective and harsh and gets paired with heavy guitar notes that are just as sporadic. Eternity Array is pure electro-acoustic-ambient; it’s like the soundtrack that someone would play sitting on a dune overlooking a field of downed ships and scrap electronics; an ode to an end for someone who doesn’t receive a funeral. At the end of the song there’s a bit of exposition filled with a disgruntled voice showcasing how forlorn their current situation is. Wavelike is the stompiest track on the album and should appeal to those looking for something much harder. But its not just a simple bass track; there are layers upon layers of IDM electronics spilled throughout and growls and industrial-hardcore elements. Workout playlist here we come.
The second collaboration on the album comes from none other than Artoffact Records alumni Seeming. His vocal performance is on point with his brand; melodic spoken word that’s glitched and toyed with throughout the track. I personally don’t think it works too well paired with Comaduster’s beats; the song sounds like something’s twitching, like synthetic nano-spiders making their way through the circuits of a ship’s control board. Alone the beat is phenomenal. But it doesn’t work here.
The last two songs on the album are Mimic and Passage Aeternum. Mimic completely envelopes darkened drum’n’bass. A guttural vocal performance sounding like Ultron, deep bass, and a shift straight into industrial hardcore towards the midpoint. Expectedly the final song Passage Aeternum gives us a cinematic set off featuring a build-up that actually gives us a final note send off rather than cutting to emptiness like I’ve heard happen so many other times. Ambiance takes us away and then Memory Echoes is finished…Until I restarted it again and again and again.
I’m glad I caught Memory Echoes at the beginning of its journey rather than sitting back and watching all the cool kids have fun. When Memory Echoes is at its peak I’m listening to some of the best songs I’ve ever heard; the title track alone deserves a perfect score and completely blew me away. And, sure, I wasn’t two fond of like two of the tracks but even then I wouldn’t even put them below a good score. It’s a journey, and a fantastic one at that, and I think that Memory Echoes will hold a special place in my heart just as Hollow Worlds did to so many back in 2013.
