They were dressed for success. But success it never came. Possibly because they were wearing spacesuits. San Jose. California trio, Duster released their first album Stratosphere in 1998, something of a 'space' concept and it's pretty much the indie hep cat's dream cult record although it's only really come to inhabit that status given the passage of time, being barely noticed except by proper devotees at the time.
Locating the tender spot between Slint and Pavement, if Stratosphere hadn't actually been recorded and put out there it would probably have had to be invented. It really doesn't do anything that those two bands didn't do themselves comprehensively over the years, which is probably why they are so much more generally revered and remembered, but it's a fine album nonetheless.
There's an understated minimalist grace to proceedings throughout. The album cover describes the record it houses well. You suspect the band spent a fair bit of time staring at their shoes and effects pedals onstage.Sometimes there are vocals, sometimes there aren't. It doesn't really seem to matter much either way. Duster maintain their poise.
Other names could be thrown in as potential influences. Wire's Pink Flag is probably the year zero as far as this particular musical sub-genre is concerned. Pere Ubu and Mission of Burma are somewhere in Stratosphere's DNA too. But really it's a definitively Nineties American Indie record, intent on maintaining a defeatist shrug, all the while sending Mayday signals to an oblivious Ground Control before drifting out of range once and for all. The rest is static...
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