Dark Ambient Review: Traveller's Tales

Review By Casey Douglass

The interactions between our memories and what our senses actually experienced is something that seems core to so much of our human existence. Ucholak’s dark ambient album Traveller's Tales toys with this concept by mingling technology, biology and the human yearning for exploration.

Traveller's Tales’ description frames the album as being set in the distant future, a time when humanity has been exploring what the universe holds, far beyond our own home galaxy. One of the key ways that information was gathered during this period was the use of neurotechnology to record what the early explorers witnessed and experienced. Some of these recordings became corrupted by the retrieval process, or by other means, with the resulting glitches mingling what the astronauts’ senses revealed with the darker workings of their own minds. The incomplete reports were dubbed Traveller's Tales, hence the very cool concept behind this album.

Part I opens with a sustained drone and a slightly fuzzy melody that roams from ear to ear. Ominous slow swells rise beneath, impact-like sounds heard through the mixture. After this opening soundscape, things become quieter, descending into a kind of “sad jazzy” feeling space, with whistling tones and scratchy microphone texture pops. A little later, the sound of a distorted radio voice emerges, with beeps and echoes making the space feel lonely. There are strange metallic chiming notes, an ear pulsing beat amidst a muffled clattering cacophony, and nymph-like calls in the air. Near its end, I thought the elements of the track conspired to hint at a kind of mocking laughter. Maybe the hapless astronaut featured in this recording crash-landed onto a featureless moon and lost him or herself to their own inner-critic as the voices on the radio faded to silence.

As desolate as Part I felt, Part II felt like a trip to a lovely paradise planet. There is a warm drone, the sound of waves, and strange bird-like tones that chirrup amidst metallic chiming notes. An element of discord enters by way of a distant drone that buzzes past, a speaker blaring unintelligible but somehow soothing words as it floats over. The words pulse and echo away. The soundscape changes into a deepening, fuzzy, bass-filled place, maybe signifying the coming of night. What sounds like a spaceship drive spinning up and taking off looms into awareness, and after this, things turn a little more twisted. My own impressions were decidedly insectoid, with electronic warbles and sweeps meeting mandible-like clicks and scrapings. Egg shell crackles and strange voices on the wind hint at an unpleasant experience for the astronaut. For me, this track depicted what someone accidentally being left behind on a hostile planet might experience.

If Part II was paradisical, Part III felt like some kind of trippy descent into Hell. It opens with a scale-sliding wah-wah type tone, with knocks and impacts echoing away into a vast space. There are beeps and the hint of a radio voice, and then things deepen into a quieter, brooding, droning environment. This new location feels bestial and chiming, with a kind of bouncing, scuffling quality. At this point, what came to mind was a spaceship entering an evil kind of hyperspace, much like the warp in Warhammer 40K. It isn’t all heavy and dark however, there are gossamer tones and what at one point seemed to be the space equivalent of sirens luring sailors to their doom. Maybe the astronaut in this traveller's tale was asleep in a cryogenic chamber while their ship travelled through something that triggered nightmares. Or maybe they really were in a nightmare and the sounds in this track are their mind trying to piece their reality together again.

The final track, Part IV, is a more beepy, beaty affair, with the space between memories and reality seeming its thinnest in the whole album. After the beat-laden, ear roaming radio voice opening, a xylophone-like melody begins with the sound of a ticking clock behind it. When I heard this, I wondered if an astronaut was remembering something from childhood, maybe lulled by the mechanical rumbles of the spacecraft, or whatever was being experienced. The melody suggested childhood to me anyway, but it could equally have been from a sad fun faire. The soundscape turns more crumpy and guttural after this, with whistling cries and agitated impacts and electronic flares. It seems like a scratchy, flapping space, and I can only guess what the astronaut is experiencing to bring about the sounds of this recording.

Traveller's Tales is a dark ambient album built around a concept that I really love. I find the whole idea of corrupted neural implant recordings from far future astronauts, decoded by scientists in the even further future, a fun thing to ponder. The tracks of the album all suggest different events befalling the hapless space travellers, and each track serves up a diverse mixture of textures and impressions. If I had to choose my favourite track, it would be Part II, as the way a paradise seems to turn into a fearful place holds the biggest emotional sway for me. If you enjoy your dark ambient with a futuristic sci-fi flavour, I think you’d enjoy Traveller's Tales.

Visit the Traveller's Tales page on Bandcamp for more information.

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Traveller's Tales

Album Artist: Ucholak

Released: 16 May 2022

Dark Ambient Review: Solaris

Review By Casey Douglass

I often find it funny how the darkest or most sorrowful music often feels the warmest, to me at least. Sasha Darko’s drone ambient horror album Solaris is full of tracks that embody this kind dichotomy, the bleakness seemingly swaddled by the warmth in some way, maybe in much the same way as the golden light of the Sun gently heats up the cold bodies of the dead in some kind of horror flick.

The tracks contained by Solaris are themed around the idea of a Telegram channel of the same name. Each track represents a strange and unsolved cold case, with the album description mentioning people dabbling with time-travel and disappearing, or answering the phone to their future selves and being warned about how they are set to die. I went into my listening sessions very much primed with a horror and sci-fi “thought anchor” nestling into the murky bottom of my mental swamp, and this is something that shows in the imagery I've used to describe the tracks that grabbed my attention the most.

Opening track Flight to the Sun had a Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibe to me, no doubt due to how the first film ended with a break for freedom at sunrise. Flight to the Sun opens with a low, gently distorting ominous rhythm. Warm, easy synth notes rock back and forth over the top. Darting jaggy tones flit bird-like in the higher reaches of the soundscape, softening a harsher whine that sits behind them. After a short while, these tones plummet like falling stars. As the midpoint approaches, things turn into a more juddery, distorted space, like reality being twisted and shredded by strange alien fingers. This is a pulsing, windy space, one that ratchets up over time. As the track reaches its end, the easier synth tones return with plucked notes along for the ride, maybe signalling a return to “almost” normalcy, but having changed something that cannot be undone.

The Mutation is another track that stood out for me, in no small part because it makes deft use of uncomfortably high tones throughout, which is something I’m not sure I’ve come across before. It opens gently enough, a sustained high drone with gentle fluctuations and beeps nestling into it. It feels like a meditative robot playing a quiet church organ. A higher pitch begins to emerge, turning into a sustained, slightly twisty, resonant whining echo as time progresses. It feels part hearing test, part dog-whistle, but not as harsh. The high tones are met by a throbbing pulsing tone after the midpoint, and this also sets up a kind of off-balance, off-kilter feeling in the brain. By the end of the track, my ears felt quite strange, like they had been echo-pulsed into a different phase of being. If nothing else, check out this track on Bandcamp, just for the experience.

Wake Up is another track that tapped into my horror fan-ship. For me, this one had Freddy Kruger written all over it. Being called Wake Up probably played a role too! It begins with a pulsing high-pressure shimmer that instantly brought Mr Kruger’s boiler room to mind. A short time into the track, a bell-like tone holds a sustained chime; the effect tapping into the 80’s horror film synth part of my brain. Things slowly grow more ominous until the end of the track is reached. A track with a simple charm for a horror fanatic.

I'll end my review by talking a little about Suspiria (feat. Corpoparassita), one of the darkest tracks on the album. It starts with low creaking echoes and a roaming, pulsing low drone. There are judders and strange echoes, and a sense of pregnant expectation. Some of the judders almost seem like creatures exhaling in a dark underground space, waiting and biding their time before they flood into the daylight world and shred everything they find there. This is a creepy, dark ambient horror soundscape, and it was a great place to visit.

Solaris is a dark collection of ambient and synth-based tracks, one that, for this listener at least, takes you on a tour of horror nostalgia alongside fresh terrors. I really liked the idea of a mysterious Telegram channel and how the tracks related to sinister cold cases, and it really helped to wrangle the variety of feelings evoked by the sometimes quite different moods each track embodies. As I said in my opening paragraph, I felt a sense of warmth that ran through many of the soundscapes, a fuzzy “look at this” feeling that was no doubt heightened by the cold harshness that creeps into the tracks at other times. I like horror films, books etc. that depict terrible and scary things that happen in the daytime, partly because it shows that evil doesn’t just come out at night, which makes it all the more dangerous. Solaris, for me, is horror by daylight, and that’s great!

Visit the Solaris page on Bandcamp for more information. You can also visit Sasha Darko's own website here.

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Solaris

Album Artist: Sasha Darko

Released: 30 August 2021

Dark Ambient Review: Dark & Light

Review By Casey Douglass

Dark & Light is a dark ambient playlist from Modern Music For Funerals. As the title might suggest, it features ten tracks that fall into various places on the mood spectrum. In my opinion, the balance tips closer to the dark side of the equation, which is just fine by me.

The tracks that seemed to speak to me the most come from the PLATFORM album. Dark Summer is the first of these in the playlist. It begins with the echoes of distant voices, possibly children at play. A low tone swells and rolls, a shimmering soon joins it in the air. As the track progresses, various sounds also join the tableau, from piano notes and the sound of what might be exhalation, to the sound of waves and the glugging of water. What this track made me think of, is how it feels to lay in a dark, hot room during the day. This room has thick curtains that block out most of the light, save for the small gaps where they meet or where they hang away from the wall. The window is open, and the sounds of life going on outside seem more distant than purely physical distance can account for. This is the mood that I felt this track encapsulated.

Another track that comes from PLATFORM is Jettisoned. Jettisoned starts with a buzzing pulsing tone, and a tinny series of electronic Morse code-like beeps. A distant alarm seems to blare, and then we hear the sound of servos moving and whining, with new status beeps along for the ride. There are radio crackles, the hissing of air and later, a kind of fizzing muted beat. The second part of the track seems to have a more urgent feel to things, whatever is going on having reached a different phase or level of danger. For me, this was a fun, sci-fi track, that popped me into a gloomy, drifting spaceship, with red emergency lighting bathing the metal of the corridors in a premonition-baiting coating of blood. A nice dose of perilous sci-fi soundscaping to escape from the shitstorm of modern life.

A third track from PLATFORM is Alone, an almost twenty minute rumbling, ominous track, with more sci-fi atmosphere and technological threat. Buzz-saw shimmering, bass that seethes and agitates the soundscape, beeps, fizzes and static, they all play their part. Things feel like they are whizzing past your head as others judder and knock, along with what sounds like something winding down. The drone lulls and soothes, and later, there are moments of a distorted computer voice, maybe trying to tell the listener how wrong things have truly gone. Around a third of the way in, the soundscape breaks into a period of gentle peace, lighter tones emerging, the harsher rumbles and beeps fading awhile. Maybe this is the period where, when someone is alone for long enough, they experience their first moment of finding the bliss in this situation. Like so many things though, it doesn’t last long, and the track soon returns to the brooding buzzing space of before.

The last playlist track that I will mention is from a different album to the ones mentioned so far. I know... On a scale of one to ten, how shocked are you? A Transmutation of Friendship is a lighter track than the others, and features a pulsing sub tone and a relaxed kinetic feeling. There is the kind of feeling you might get as a passenger on a train in motion, as telephone or power poles seemingly make a whup-whupping sound as their shadows slide along the sunlit carriage. There are hints of light tones at the edge, a jittery electronic buzz, and a gentle scuffing beat. It’s a very pleasant track, and one suited to a quiet weekend.

The Dark & Light playlist has other tracks, with other sounds and moods, but these were the ones that spoke to my own dark taste. Head over to the SoundCloud link to check out the full list and have a listen. You might also like to visit and join The IDM Production Bureau, the online community created by the album artist, for lovers and producers of IDM. 

Playlist Title: Dark & Light

Music Artist: Modern Music For Funerals

Dark Comic Review: Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia #3: Two Peas in a Pot

Review by Casey Douglass

The first two issues of Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia have seen wrestler Rory Landell declare himself to be the Galactic Champion of the Universe, triggering the invasion of Earth by wrestlers from Planet Wrestletopia. My reviews of those issues can be found here and here. Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia #3: Two Peas in a Pot continues the hunt for the still missing Rory, with deals and power struggles causing many a crunching head trauma.

Manifest Destiny, the reigning Galactic Champion of the Universe, wants a title unification bout with Rory. He and his cronies approach Rory’s old promoter, someone who is quickly persuaded that it would be in his best interest to make this contest happen. Meanwhile, the hapless Rory, who ended issue 2 unconscious on the floor of a bar, finds himself tied to a lamppost as some alien wrestlers debate what to do with him. His friends, pint-sized wrestler Macho, and his old manager Don, turn up to rescue him, and to also fill him in on what has been happening in his absence.

It is later in this issue that the counter-faction to Manifest Destiny is also revealed to us. They have a vested interest in Rory not actually being found. During a later exchange with Rory’s ex-promoter, we find that the number one contender is someone called “Sunny” Jim Cooley “The peach blossom playboy”. Rory’s ex-promoter appears, once again, to be “persuaded” that he might just have to renege on his deal with Manifest Destiny. Part of this persuasion comes courtesy of a dominatrix Wrestletopian and her slave, which was an unexpected turn I must admit.

What we have in issue three, is more funny wheeling and dealing. On the human side, we can see greed and nationalism rear their heads, the latter particularly during a meeting of world leaders who can’t decide which wrestlers will stand in for Rory if he doesn’t show. As you might imagine, in the world of this comic book, it isn’t long before a brawl breaks out. As far as Rory, we spend more time on the road with him, and we are also treated to a glimpse of his little friend Macho’s origin story, how he came to be a wrestler, and why he is so good at kicking ass. I also liked the reveal of the number one contender, I mean, “Sunny” Jim Cooley “The peach blossom playboy” is such a great name.

At the very end of this issue is a page from a wrestling album, done in the style of those old WWF/WCW ones that I used to have in my youth. On this page we are treated to info bites about six wrestlers, including Rory, and Kodiak Jack, the bear with the coolest name ever. It’s a really great little piece of nostalgia and the whole style and tone was nailed nicely. As in previous issues, the humour in general, is just right too, with my favourite quote this time being Manifest Destiny’s response to being asked to sit down: “Your Earthling chairs are not fit to carry the Galactic Champion!”.

As always, it will be fun to find out what happens in issue four, whether Rory will make it to the fight, and what other conniving schemes or factions might emerge from the shadows to help or to hinder him.

Visit the Comixology page for more info.

I was given access to a review copy of this comic.

Comic Book Name: Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia #3 : Two Peas in a Pot

Authors: Ed Kuehnel & Matt Entin

Artist: Dan Schkade

Colouring: Marissa Louise

Lettering: Dave Lanphear

Publisher: Starburns Industries Press

Released: 19 June 2019

Price: $1.99

Why I Think Subnautica is One of the Best Horror Games

Why I Think Subnautica is One of the Best Horror Games

By Casey Douglass

Subnautica is a game that I almost didn’t buy. I’d had an interest, then a disinterest, and then things seemed to align and I saw it on sale and picked it up. I knew the kind of game I was getting: a sci-fi water-based survival game with exploring and beasties. What I didn’t realise is that Subnautica would give me some of the best experiences of horror and awe that I’ve probably encountered. Which, as surprises go, was a most welcome one.

The life pod with the wreckage of the Aurora behind.

The game begins with a spaceship, the Aurora, plummeting through the sky, a life-pod splashing down in water and a nice bit of fire-extinguishing. Then the longer-term survival begins. Everything you need is scattered for miles around, the groaning, flaming Aurora blotting the horizon. You can’t stay long underwater before running out of oxygen. You also don’t have much equipment. Or food. Or drinking water. As situations go, it’s a grim one. But to paraphrase The Martian’s Mark Watney... ‘Fuck you water-planet!’

My Seamoth in the moon-pool

The early game is spent creating basic equipment, scavenging resources and scanning everything you

can find to see if it’s useful. Before long, you will have moved from your small life pod to a base of your own construction. You will create a mini-sub called a Seamoth, and you will likely have swanky things like battery chargers, food-growing beds and sonar. Sonar links to one of the first ways that the game wowed me.

Sonar revealing the terrain

As you might imagine, shallow water is easy to see through. As you explore, the sea-bed dips away from you into ominous looking darkness. You might catch sight of something lurking out there, or even hear the alien-cry of some vast predator. But it’s all shrouded in murk. It’s like looking into the abyss of space, but scarier in some ways, more personal and reachable, rather than infinite darkness. You know there is a bottom to it, where unseen things dwell and cavort and consume. Pinging your sonar reveals the secret of the contours around you, but fades moments later, like the ultimate tease.

My humble base

As you push on, scanning and discovering abandoned places, you get the chance to build a Cyclops, a larger submarine. When I finally built mine, I was amazed at the size of it. My base at the time had four rooms, a moon-pool (a snazzy underwater docking room) and various corridors, yet the Cyclops, while narrower, sat three stories tall and loomed next to it like a leviathan of my own making. I wasn't expecting it to be so big. When you turn the engine on it rumbles and purrs with a power that the tiny Seamoth can only dream of. Oh, and that Seamoth can drive up into the Cyclops’s bowels and dock, strapping itself in to come along for the ride.

My new Cyclops 'looming'

The thing is, and I don’t mind admitting it, I’ve barely taken my Cyclops ten yards. During the early game, I lost two Seamoths to things that latched on and tore them apart. I’m wary of my Cyclops meeting the same fate. Sure, I can build another one, given the time and resources, but right now, I find myself sat in a comfy zone of mild fear. I’ve carried on exploring with my Seamoth, even built the Prawn suit that enables the player to bound around like a little underwater mech, but the Cyclops sits and waits for me, wondering when I will feel the urge to go deeper.

I know there are bigger things out there, deeper darknesses swirling with creatures that, if provoked, would attack me and destroy me. I also know that the answers to the various mysteries around the planet, and my own survival, lie down there too. I can definitely sympathise with Bilbo Baggins sneaking into the Lonely Mountain. You want to go but you don’t. That’s where I am. And I’m enjoying it. I can dictate the pace, and stretch out the anticipation as long as I feel like it.

At the moment, I am scouring the safer areas for resources, enjoying my feeling of relative safety. Every time I come to one of those areas of extreme depth, I ping my sonar and watch the red grid slide down a previously unseen funnel, and not even come close to showing the bottom. I hear things roar and take heed of the depth warning coming from my craft’s A.I, and I know I will find out what is at the bottom soon.

Fresh underwear time.

I never expected Subnautica to cause the feelings to arise that it has so far. It’s a different kind of fear to that found in a game like Alien: Isolation or Outlast. They provide a more acute fear. Subnautica’s is a nagging unease that occasionally results in moments of panic-fuelled retreat and loss, but it is more seductive for that very reason.

If you like horror games and have not tried Subnautica, due to it not really looking like a horror game, take a closer look. Visit Unknown Worlds Entertainment here to view the official site.

Dark Ambient Review: Primal Destination

Dark Ambient Review: Primal Destination

Review by Casey Douglass

If you walk into a travel agent and ask for a primal destination, you’ll probably get a baffled look and end up with a ticket to somewhere with no toilet. In an ideal world, you would get a brilliant smile and a ticket to an untamed planet somewhere far far away. Sadly, this world is far from ideal, but just such a planet is envisioned in Dead Melodies’ dark ambient album Primal Destination.

The listener takes on the role of planetary explorer as the various soundscapes Primal Destination contains unfold around you. There are technological sounds such as static and electronic tones. There are also field-recordings of nature, from the quiet dripping of water to bird and animal calls that are twisted into something unusual and unfamiliar. Both of these elements meet to conjure the ‘feel’ of the album, which for me, was a chilled feeling of wandering among strange vistas.

I think my favourite track is Subterraformed, a track that kind of channelled a feeling of Lovecraft to me. It begins with dripping water echoing in what seems to be an underground cavern. The bubbling water that joins this a little later hints at the idea of a vast lake stretching into the distance. Add in the distant drone and pulses of ominous bass tone, and my mind was set to thinking about the entrance to the abyss hidden deep under the Mountains of Madness.

Another track that I really enjoyed was Pearlescent Dawn. Beginning with sweeping birdsong and snatches of wind, the track creates a breathing landscape, one with buzzing insect-like sounds and a mechanical feel. For me, the “pearlescent” in the title made me bring to mind the shimmering rainbow colours on the surface of an oil puddle, so I kind of viewed this as a scrapyard of alien technology. Actually, the previous track, Somatic Mutation made me think of a robot graveyard, so the technological feel of these tracks was clearly quite strong for me.

Glades is also an intriguing track, containing a soundscape tinged with swampy glugs and wind-swept threat. The strange animal/bird calls feature here too, some of them even sound a little like the howling of a wolf, but distorted into something a little different. There are wading sounds a little later, and while this probably was meant to suggest explorers pushing through, I had visions of a strange cluster of creatures holding lanterns and walking through the mist in a sombre procession. Both ways of viewing it are equally fun though.

Primal Destination is just what its title suggests, an album containing raw and alien soundscapes that takes the listener’s mind on a smooth, calm journey through unknown valleys and caverns. The interplay of technology and alien creatures adds a lovely amount of novelty to things, and the soundscapes can all be enjoyed at an unhurried pace. If you are a fan of sci-fi-based dark ambient / space ambient, you should take a look at Primal Destination’s Bandcamp page here.

Check out Pearlescent Dawn below:

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Primal Destination

Artist: Dead Melodies

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: 1 Jan 2019

Dark Fiction: D.N.A

Dark Fiction: D.N.A

Written by Casey Douglass

Riz pulled over and switched off the engine. The heat shimmered from the rusty orange hood, managing to make it look hotter than the haze floating over the desert highway ahead. It all almost looked real.

Chimes and alerts went off, graphics hovering in front of Riz's face, arrows and tips as to what to do next. He dismissed them with a flick of his eyes and muted the alarms. 

He opened the door and heaved himself up from the seat. His neck and shoulders creaked as he arched them, the hot, moisture-less air setting his lips stinging. He looked up and down the road but nothing else was around, for now at least.

What was this game again? He couldn't remember. Some post apocalyptic Mad Max style wet dream no doubt. Most were, especially after humanity had partly brought this idea into reality. Now they were just VR fodder, a reminder of what could have been.

He walked around the beat-up car, the chrome scuffed, the paint pebble dashed. An explosion boomed over the horizon, the roaring of engines and cheers blowing to him on the breeze. Shit it was hot. He knew he could turn down the sensations the sim fed him, but that wasn't the point.

He climbed onto the scorching hood, the hot metal searing his skin. He grimaced and laid back, his neck sticking to the windscreen. The sun pounded against his face, his eyes clicked as he blinked, all moisture rapidly fleeing. The rumble of engines grew nearer, the vibration massaging his backside as the heat stuck his balls to his thighs. Part of him was glad that he was wearing the grubby overalls he found himself in.

More chimes and alerts sounded. This game was more insistent than most. He read a couple out of curiosity. “Go here...”, “Do that...”, “Kill this...”. He shut them off. How original they all were.

He opened a recording hub and smiled into the glowing blue lens that appeared above him.

‘I’m Rizz, a member of the Do Nothing Alliance. I'm in-,’ he searched briefly, ‘Desert Kings 5, the latest slice of virulent reality entertainment, another system to tell us what to do, where to go, who to be. Well, I’m me, I’m by this road, and I’m going to sunbathe while the dip-shits over the hill masturbate over their desert porn. As I do this, thousands of my associates are doing the same in this and other games, taking no part in their world’s events or economy.’

He paused and spat to the side, his throat starting to tingle.

‘We humans have become used to false pleasure, fake pain, false goals and fraudulent realities. This has left us maladjusted to life in the real world, which is why so many hide in these games. We are using the approach of non-violent protest, in the hope that others will join our cause, or at the least, give their situation more serious thought. We are in these games, we are doing nothing. We are the ghosts of what humans used to be, ploughers of their own furrows, wanderers of unknown paths, and we are tired of society force feeding us tamed realities.’

He looked over his shoulder as roaring metal glinted on the horizon. He looked back at the camera.

‘We have found a way to turn our safeguards off.’

He smiled.

‘Game death is real death. And the neural feedback caused by thousands of deaths just might knock these things offline for awhile, but that’s only a bonus. There aren’t enough of us out in the world, so we will let it crumble, just like you are doing by living your lives in these games. If we died out there, no-one would notice. So here we are. Lemmings on the cliff.’

With an effort of will, he sent the recording lens up out of harm’s way.

A rumbling sound grew nearer. Rizz closed his eyes and took a deep breath. None of it was real, except what his brain made of it all. He’d feel every pixel, taste every line of pain and scream every byte of agony. He knew what was coming, it was the nature of the game to kill without thought or reason. He looked up at the sun.

A hulking lorry rammed into the car, its spiked wheels churning, its flaming exhausts burning and its horn honking as it ripped through the length of the chassis, rending metal and flesh into bloody streamers of gore. The effect was much like a piñata being blown up with C4, except instead of fluttering pieces of paper, there were needle-sharp pieces of metal and glass. These fell to the hot tarmac, skidding and bouncing as they lost their kinetic energy. As the last of them fell still, the truck that had continued down the road juddered.

It glitched up the road a little further.

It stopped.

The clouds in the sky froze.

Two realities held their breath.

Dark Ambient Review: Echoes of the Future

Dark Ambient Review: Echoes of the Future

Review by Casey Douglass

Proto U’s dark ambient album Echoes of the Future continues the themes explored in her previous albums: Earth Songs, Khmaoch and The Edge of Architecture. The theme of this album revolves around what a post-Earth event might look like, humanity strapping themselves into gigantic metal vessels and blasting off into the wider universe.

Album Blurb: The space center sleeps as the sound of your boots echo down endless hallways. Rocket fuel reeks from the colonization ships outside, one more to go. You steal one final look at the charred horizon as you enter the last ship bound for a new home. Do we deserve a second chance? A deep space ambient album that invites you to take part in the discovery of cosmic anomalies and abandoned space stations in search of a new home.

As this is a space, sci-fi type album, the expected rumblings, buzzings and beepings don’t take too long to appear. They do this in a way however, that remains interesting and full of texture. Take the opening track Gone as an example. A mechanical “ticking” gets things going, a sound that threads a sustaining rhythm through the other sounds that emerge around it. Added to this are some mellow tones that move from ear to ear and some rumbling thundery sounds. It’s hard not to imagine the view described in the album blurb, gazing through the window of a space station as massive ships start their drives, and float gently away from their docking clamps.

Things change up for the next track Interlinked, where a kind of shimmering hangs in the soundscape. High tones join it that become almost shrill at times. Among the other elements of the track are gentle buzzings, and a fantastic “boiling” effect that to me, sounded like what might happen if you could boil digital bytes, or code, in a saucepan. When you get to the hints of voice transmission near the end of the track, you feel like something has exchanged protocols and a handshake has taken place. Maybe a ship has docked with the subject of my musing below.

Next up is 43258D. This track seemed to bring to mind what it might be like to visit a steampunk-styled planet, one of metal, steam and fire. The muted opening sounds, airy or watery, are joined by a deeper rumbling a little later, and by the midpoint, help create a resonating maelstrom. The fuzzed sound of an astronaut breathing at the end drew parallels with the album art of Echoes of the Future, for me at least. Someone who had entered a strange planet, made his or her way through the hissing corridors and pumping chambers and finally entered a glowing core of stillness and tranquility.

Drawings of Nebula really seemed to be the audio equivalent of looking at some of the stunning deep space photos that we get from the Hubble telescope. There are “radio frequency sweeping” tones pinging off masses of particles, and later, hissy static being joined by wolf-like howls and more human voice-transmission effects. If the fleet or ship at the heart of this album were passing close to a nebula, this track does a good job of encapsulating what that might sound like.

The final track that I wanted to mention, and also my favourite, is Hounds of the Void. This track, for me, had an ominous tone. While the others were awe inspiring, or simply interesting, this track rumbled with threat, which I liked very much. It didn’t cause me to think of the human fleet, but a change in viewpoint to an alien threat. Massive ships, darker than dark, making their way through the universe looking for prey. The track starts with a deep tone that throbs and pulses. These pulses grow and are joined with other higher tones, which might suggest starlight beginning to glint on clustered metal shapes that weren't visible a moment ago. The track seems to contain a metallic shimmer, that sits above the rumbling. There are small tones and voice-like calls/beeps, I couldn't decide which. All I could do was imagine this fleet moving past from a fixed point, the ships looking sharp and dangerous, the soundscape making me feel like I didn’t want to be seen. Absolutely fantastic.

Echoes of the Future is another superb album from Proto U. If you enjoy the more sci-fi/space ambient variety of soundscape that it contains, you really should buy a copy when you can. It’s mellow, smooth, awe inspiring and dark, the spaces it creates both massive and haunting. A perfect album to listen to as these cold winter nights draw in.

Check out the Echoes of the Future page on Bandcamp at this link. You might also like to listen to Hounds of the Void below:

I was given a copy of this album for review purposes.

Album Title: Echoes of the Future

Artist: Proto U

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: 28 August 2018

Dark Fiction - Quantum Suicide

Dark Fiction - Quantum Suicide

By Casey Douglass

(This story is about suicide. If you are struggling with mental health in this way, it might be best that you don't read it.)

The multiverse had finally been proven, a universe of universes, each with its offshoots, variations and duplicates, placing humanity in a kaleidoscope of possibility. It was early days with regards to what humanity might do with this knowledge, but for Elliot, it all seemed so bleak.

He tapped at his lab machine, the deep vibrations of the facility humming beneath his feet. It had been two months since a way to make contact with our “other selves” had been established, rapidly increasing the rate of research in a previously unheard of form of collaboration. Think how things would be if Stephen Hawking had been able to work with hundreds of other Stephen Hawkings on the same project. Sure, there would be some blind-spots due to the same mind chewing over the same problem, but heck, it was still a leap forward compared to working with lesser intellects.

Message number three-hundred arrived on Elliot’s screen. Another thumbs up.

People hearing about how their other selves are doing is a mixed bag. Some, naturally, will be having far better lives than the enquirer. Others will be struggling. In Elliot’s case, they all seemed to be struggling, not one in three hundred enquiries came back with a hint of promise. He’d have loved to come across an Elliot that had made it, that was happy, even simply content, but no. The Elliots of this existence seem doomed to suffer misfortune, ill health and misadventure, no matter how hard they try. He didn’t believe in God or a creator, but if he did, it would have been hard for him not to have suspected some kind of conspiracy against him. To what end, he had now idea. Maybe if he’d been left to his own devices, he’d have become a giant threat to the universe, a bit like a Bond villain having their teddy taken away when they were seven. It didn’t matter, his mind was made up, or rather, minds.

The multiverse is said to have branching events. That apple you eat in this universe not being eaten in another. Most people can understand this state of affairs, and most would expect that life decisions and events playing out in two directions, either happening or not, could lead to quite different lives. Elliot found it beyond aggravating that his own branched self just seemed to suffer wherever and however circumstances allowed him to be born. He wondered if he was in a kind of Hell, finding no peace or joy wherever he went.

Message number three hundred and one flashed up, another thumbs up. He felt it was pointless to delay any longer. He selected “Reply All” and replied: Schrödinger Imminent. Nice knowing you all.

Elliot had been collaborating too. A brilliant physicist and researcher, he’d linked up with many of his other selves and discovered something that nobody else had, so far at least. He had discovered the way that we are connected to our counterparts. It was a small quantum chord, maybe even the silver cord mentioned in those old books about astral projection and etheric bodies. It snaked off into quanta a few feet from the body, and this, it seemed, was our link. Not to anyone else, just our namesakes in other verses. Elliot, well, the Elliots, had decided that it might be time to stop their suffering, to use the equivalent of quantum scissors, and to cut that chord.

Experiments had been conducted on a variety of creatures, and across the board, severing the thing had meant death. So far, so good, but what about the way the universes work? If someone kills himself in one, another will split off where he didn’t end things. It was a tricky problem, but nanotechnology and its ultimate form, Schrödinger, saved the day on this point.

Schrödinger’s Cat is the thought experiment about putting a cat in a box with some poison that will release at random, and then sealing the box so that no one can see inside. While not knowing if the cat is alive or dead, it is said to be both at the same time. Basically, Elliot’s Schrödinger nanobot functioned by destroying the box, and subsequently taking the cat, whether alive or dead, with it. Across the multiverse, this seemed to halt the formation of a derivative universe, and promptly removed the subject from the one in which Schrödinger was administered. The nanobot would then travel along the quantum cord, sever it, and move on to the next universe, repeating its kill command over and over and over. It did this by phasing down, using some kind gap in space-time to make itself insubstantial enough, and small enough, to engage at a quantum level. Elliot wondered when this kind of thing would be called a quantobot. That's what he'd call it anyway.

Elliot barely even heard the hiss as the gas-powered injector shot Schrödinger into his neck. He didn’t know if Schrödinger would eliminate him from every universe, but with at least three hundred of his companions launching it too, and with the way that it duplicates and spreads, it stood a good chance of success, even if it took an infinity to do it.

They knew it was risky, that it could malfunction or fall into the wrong hands, but there was only so much you could do. Maybe he was a threat to the universe after all. They had each agreed to wipe their research as a precaution. It wouldn't disappear completely, as they could find no way to Schrödinger non-living technology, but they tried to destroy it as best they could.

Elliot felt a sharp pain in his gut, an opening, a flare of peace, and then felt nothing at all. Across the multiverse, Elliots dropped to the ground, like so many flowers being dead-headed by the most efficient gardener in history. Nothing new would be growing from these roots, and if the multiverse cared, it showed no sign of it.

THE END(S)