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Diamond Tears On Slate

by Brian Grainger

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  • Limited Edition CD-R [Rare Out Of Print Dead Pilot Edition w/ Obi]
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Found two copies of Diamond Tears On Slate while unpacking - #53 and #56 of the 100 copy pressing at the now (sadly) defunct Dead Pilot Records label in the UK. They're packaged in black digipaks with front and back cover stickers, with hand numbering, a color insert and a printed white CD-R. There's also a hand-glued brown OBI wrapped around the center. This album has yet to see a physical reissue after Dead Pilot closed, making this a scarce piece of the catalog to find!

    **NOTE: The items listed in the back catalog sale have all been found while unpacking. Some of them have been packed away for years in storage, and may have small imperfections. These are being sold as is, as the artifacts they are, to raise money for implementing the new studio. No refunds will be given.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Diamond Tears On Slate via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Pagan Horn 22:10

about

"With “Diamond Tears on Slate”, Brian channels a dark and bleak spirit in to his work. At times sounding like the distant chants of weird rituals from the occult, this mutated album of twisted drone is some of Brian’s finest music to date. Heavily grained textures underlined with deep bass progressions are where we head first with opener “Empyrean Crown” whilst “Roman Emerald Orgies” starts with waves of reverberated guitar licks before descending into a blackened dirge; this album will drain you in the best possibly sense of the word."
-Dead Pilot Records, 2010

"Our man Brian makes his album label debut on Dead Pilot following an appearance on the Drone Poets CD a short while back... Oh shit! A few minutes in and black clouds are shifting towards me and sucking me up into a vortex. Man he's heading straight into the zone here, no messing. I gotta say this may well be the darkest I've heard Mr Grainger go, sans maybe some of the VCV stuff perhaps. Oh yeah I'm feeling this one, it even recalls some black metal soundscapes when some of those guys head into a more dark ambient mode. The textures become more metallic and feel a little more tangible then >>> Shit!!! A big blast of bass action lifts 'Empyrean Crown' entirely into new levels of goodness. 'Open Jaws Lined With Jagged Glass Teeth' slows down the intensity with a more reflective mood and again deep bass underpins sweeping howls and brain massaging tones. 'Diamond Tears On Slate' creates cavernous space with elements of isolationist ambient that recalls Thomas Koner's early works. Just as I'm blissing out, 'Roman Emerald Orgies' kicks my ass with some noisy distorted guitar sounds and then steadily plunges into blackened realms. Closer 'Pagan Horn' ends the set with murky cinematics. Recommended!"
-Ant @ Norman Records, 2010

"Goddamn, this guy never stops. Right after his release THE LONELINESS OF EMPTY ROADS as Milieu, he puts out this 75 minute monolith on DEAD PILOT, and he’s ALREADY got two more out, his “heaviest record yet” called One Bleak Try and ICEPAK, a Christmas EP on Bandcamp.
I guess we should be so lucky. Brian Grainger is one of the few dudes today that makes truly high quality tunes. Not the imitation shit. This is the real deal right here. And we get basically as much of it as we can handle.
Diamond Tears On Slate is some of his best work to date. Only 5 tracks but clocking in at 1 hour and 15 minutes, this is a massive slab of gorgeous static, starting out as almost the complete opposite of Empty Roads. This isn’t depressing or desolate, it’s beauty in its purest form, warm & inviting. It’s super lush, an infinite warehouse lined with golden grass & dust, drones that fill the space with closed eyes and half smiles, even the track “Open Jaws Lined With Jagged Glass Teeth” is a slow soaring euphoric trip over the mossy plains.
But it takes a turn towards the dark side on the title track, a minimal midnight creep with ghostly rumbles in the background. Then it gets murky as hell, like a swampy Italo-disco horror soundtrack slowed wayyy down and drugged out on morphine all while keeping a certain strange beauty hovering around. The final 13 minute track evens things out a bit, brings it out of the cave with waves of bubbling distortion that fade into the ocean.
Brian Grainger worked some drone voodoo into Diamond Tears, equal parts bliss & beast that mysteriously starts up again as soon as it’s over. Obviously a necessity to your neverending Grainger shelf, or the perfect one to let you in on the secret of his wondrous drones."
-Anti-Gravity Bunny, 2010

Issued on a limited edition CD-R pressing of 100 hand-numbered copies at UK label Dead Pilot Records in 2010, and now out of print. On the physical pressing, the album titles were printed in the correct order but the tracks were not ordered correctly on the CD-R - the order and titling presented here is correct. This album is conceptually intended as part two of a two-part set, with part one being White Kingdoms.

credits

released October 25, 2010

W/P by Brian Grainger. Recorded at 114RKD 2009-2010 using guitar, organ and tape. Suggested for playback on audio systems with heavy bass response and high decibel levels. This is Milieu Music Digital number MMDR043.

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about

Brian Grainger Dayton, Ohio

Drone music, warm atmosphere and textural ephemera for the working man.

I also release music as Milieu milieumusic.bandcamp.com and Coppice Halifax coppicehalifax.bandcamp.com

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