crimeboys - very dark past

Special Guest DJ and Pontiac Streator unite for this first time collaboration under the slightly misleading crimeboys moniker (on first seeing the name i assumed it was another post-punk band from Melbourne - that it is most clearly not). If the name is a misnomer, the music they make together remains broadly in keeping with the surrounding West Mineral/Experiences Ltd universe they're associated with. That sound, one of time dilated atmosphere, decayed electronics and moments of discomfiting abrasion, seemed to hit a plateau of sorts not long ago, perhaps because of over-familiarity, most likely because of the raft of pale imitations birthed in its wake For its part, Very Dark Past arrests that misdevelopment somewhat by shifting its reference points. Ambient-adjacent has become the popular way of describing what these two usually get up to, and the submerged gauziness of Very Dark Past lends itself to such an understanding, but there's a fair bit more going on here than that might suggest. There's more than a slight nod to the dub-wise concerns of the Chain Reaction axis, while also displaying a vaseline-on-the-lens take on ambient jungle/liquidDnB ala Photek or Source Direct - think the latter's The Cult suspended in syrupy lean, as if happening in a next room(/world) you can't quite reach. No doubt crimeboys are looking to the past for inspiration, but in doing so have helped evolved a sound that was starting to feel like it was in need of a jumpstart. Best thing to cover from this world in a good minute.