JAN 2008/NEW ALBUM:
**If current instrumental music was always as majestic and as compelling
as this, I'd hang up my Retro-Italian Soundtrack collector's boots for
good. What we have here is the first definitive document from Seattle's
Diminished Men. From the explosive drum rolls of the opening track, the only cover on the record, "L'appel du Vere", from Roman Polanski's "The Tenant" (composed by Phillipe Sarde) to the darkly exotic finale "A Housewife's Dram", this record is a superbly crafted mosaic of whip-cracking vengeance, speakeasy hallucinations, and haunted geography. Besides the Italian western overtones, carnivalesque freak show backdrops, Khorshid Egyptian guitar passages, and flipped-out electronic space psych, are perhaps the best surf-inspired tracks I've heard in years. A thick damp fog must have been rolling in from the creek behind Randall Dunn's West Seattle studio when these recordings were made. Its spine-chilling how Dunn managed to make this record sound like the ultimate mid-60's Surf-Vampire-Western revival soundtrack. Elements of Joe Meek's best Moontrekkers productions cross with a dash of Badalamentian murder blues drama setting the stage for Steve Schmitt's cobra-twilight guitar work and Dave Abramson's drum kit outlaw splatter to leave their indelible stains across this 41-minute epic journey.
...............................-ALAN BISHOP (Sun City Girls, Sublime Frequencies)
**Yet to be released, the NEW ALBUM is produced & recorded by RANDALL DUNN, who has worked with Secret Chiefs 3, Sun City Girls, Eyvind Kang, Sunn, Earth, Jesse Sykes, Wayne Horvitz...etc. TRUE Meek and Spector minded production. exploding drums, sinister organs and horns, face melting saturation and Tsunamic Compression. when was this thing recorded??? 1968? 1979? 2020? STEVE MOORE of Earth provides the vital Farfisa organ and Mellotron as wells as some lovely trombone and euphonium.
absorbing Badalamenti, the shock of "Deer Hunter" in the theatre at age 11, The Cramps, Fellini, Jimmy Page, and his best friend had California's largest and rarest dub collection- introducing Steve Schmitt-guitar. Exploring what is now a unique style, brilliantly unorthodox, yet so familiar.....Link Wray, Morricone, Lynch accompianment, Nino Rota. Dave Abramson- versatile drummer, percussionist, (Master Musicians of Bukkake, Climax Golden Twins, Wally Shoup, Maureen Whiting Dance Co.) Sam Wambach-saxophones, Simon Henneman-bass. Diminished Men have been featured with the internationally known and much wondered about Maureen Whiting Dance Company, as well as with the Seattle International Film Festival and NorthWest Film Forum.
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NAMES OF THE DEAD(cd) 2005/6
This is a stunningly original disc. It blends horror and surf nightmare sound, bending to create serious images and moods. Very well written and arranged.
4 stars........ -Phil Dirt, REVERB CENTRAL
Diminished Men plow a distinctive, reverb-laden groove in Seattle's bustling music scene. Southpaw guitarist Steve Schmitt pulls off mercurial, twanging leads that corkscrew with Django Reinhardt meets Ry Cooder dexterity while the rest of the group help create eerie and exhilirating spaghetti-western themes --with a peyote chaser. Is that cactus talking to me?
..................................-THE STRANGER (2006 Big Shot nomination)
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DISCOGRAPHY:
"AMERICAN VOLUME SWELLS" 2006(Cass) Bowels of Lunacy -BOL002
"NAMES OF THE DEAD" 2005(CD) Hector Stentor -HS003
Limited edition cassettes available at Wall of Sound records, through mailorder (at diminishedmen.com) and at shows.
"Names of the Dead"(CD)available in most Seattle record shops, through mailorder and at shows.
