Blue Chemise - Influence On Dusk

Reissue of Mark Gomes' debut LP under the Blue Chemise moniker, first released in 2017 in an edition of 105 via his Australian micro-label Greedy Ventilator. Later Blue Chemise works have garnered a fair bit more attention than Influence on Dusk, but there's a reason BAADM are revisiting this one now. Gomes' output has become increasingly more accessible, culminating in the Satie-esque Flower Studies in 2021, which makes these early forays seem all that more alien and unsettling, psychoactive electro-acoustic studies that flirt along the more unknowable edges of ambient, drone, sound design and minimalism. Influence of Dusk also reveals the beginnings of the dystopian sci-fi aesthetic explored in more depth on the Alphane Moods record Gomes most recently released under his own name, that ghost-in-the-machine uneasiness that suggests the strange dichotomy of an atrophied technology that takes you to the depths of space but fails in providing the basic means of human survival (what use is warp speed when the tap wont turn on?). Presented in 14 programmatically titled parts, Gomes' intention here is purposefully enigmatic, but the feeling generated is one that's remained consistent throughout his proceeding works - these machines know the flaws and idiosyncrasies of the human touch.