If I hadn’t fallen off the face of the internet between the middle of December and now, I would have posted the rest of the B3nson Collective’s B3st of the Decade lists, you (the avid reader of b3nson.net) would have noticed that I placed Dust From 1000 Years Buzzard as my 6th favorite album of the last decade. Since I didn’t post that list you are going to have to take my word for how much I love that album.

SInce 2005 when Buzzard was released, Dust From 1000 Years has toured a whole bunch, changed their line up a few times (though Ben and Jimmy have remained a constant) and recently got picked up by Moon Jaw Records a new imprint of Absolutely Kosher and Misra records (Mountain Goats, Xui Xiu, Sunset Rubdwn) run by Leo DeLuca of the band Southeast Engine. The fledgling label deal may just be the well deserved break Dust from 1000 Years has been looking for.

Marble Memo, Dust’s first release on Moon Jaw bears the unmistakable imprint of Dust from 1000 Years’ earlier work, starting exactly the same way Buzzard did with Ben quietly counting three to begin the first song. “In Dream Time” the opening song affirms that band still has its knack for haunting melodly and harmony. Ben’s voice and song writing are still something completely unique but manage at the same time to be comforting and familiar.

The album also continues to expound on the themes familiar to Dust,  small town mysticism, the lives of small town people a deeply felt love for food (any food). These seemingly mundane themes are transformed through honesty and artistry to be expansive tropes through which Ben expresses a singular and captivating view of the world.

The album as a whole is more subdued than Buzzard exuding on the whole a feeling of remorse and compassion a feeling which starts from the proper songs of the album and is expanded by a number of instrumental/ soundscape interludes which litter the tracklist. This makes for a cohesive and beautiful album in the mood of glum.

I have to say I do miss the lively bass and drum interplay that lifted Buzzard into a more adventerous mood. The bass tone on that album is my favorite bass tone of all time ever and I am constantly failing at replicating in my own recordings. Still this album comes highly recommended from me, one of my favorites of the new decade so far.

mp3: In Dreamtimem

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