The whole thing just seems so dour from the outset.
Doesn’t it though? I don’t know how many of you have actually had to reflect on “a dying man” (or a dying anyone), but the situation, the process, isn’t an easy one. It’s friggin painful, not only because you’re about to lose a person that you know forever, but also because it causes you to face your own mortality in some new, real-er way than you’ve ever had to grapple with before. That encounter can shape you for the rest of your life, no matter how long or short it turns out to be.
Heavy.
Diamondstein’s Reflecting on a Dying Man (Doom Trip) is the latest from the mysterious project, and, true to form, it flirts with breaking out of itself and connecting, but it ultimately remains an internal, personal experience. Sure, that’s how everybody probably wants to barrel through the titular event, getting through to the other side for some kind of psychic relief (if there even is any), but it’s not that easy, and you’re in for a prolonged period of emotional whiplash anyway. Guess you better strap in and hang on.
Diamondstein manages to emulate human response to impending mortality through a variety of approaches, and all are appropriate and welcome. Dense ambient, pulsing electro, glittering digital post-rock, spectral industrial, looping drone, and towering synthesizer soundtrackery all illustrate some facet of the process, often within the same song. Everything is drenched in grief, although there’s obviously a level of experimentation that clearly leads to satisfaction on the part of both the listener and (likely) Diamondstein themselves. So you don’t have to be sad to the point of debilitation while listening to Reflecting on a Dying Man — you can also enjoy it.
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Oh, wait, is the “dying man” the self in some way? I gotta do some rewrites —
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