San Jose’s sonic cure-all for the Y2K hangover that never materialized, Duster emerged from a cloud of lonely bong rips to take indie rock to the moon, and beyond. Scotch-taped guitars toggle between a chorus of brittle winter trees and a blanket of distorted fuzz. The low rumble of a cardboard box being kicked in a dead mall keeps pace in the background, as muffled, sung-spoken vocals ponder the great mysteries of modern mundanity. Three years of home recording accidents and blown-out 2AM studio experiments are spread across four LPs or three CDs, gathering the short-lived trio’s Stratosphere and Contemporary Movement albums, 1975 EP, singles, demos, and other miscellaneous debris into one escape pod, now free to drift in the endless void of space.
In honor of the announcement, the band have shared one of the previously unreleased songs included in the set.”‘What You’re Doing To Me’ was recorded in Jason’s basement in Seattle on 4-track during some lost time when we were isolated, distant stations just enduring the cold dark winds,” the band state. “Recording songs and putting them in a bag to do something with them eventually is kinda how we’ve always done it.”
Mastered from a mix of crusty cassettes, decaying DATs, and warbly analog tape, Capsule Losing Contact is housed in a moon dusted slipcase with all four albums secured in heavyweight tip-on jackets. An accompanying lyric book guides the listener through Duster’s lo-fi worldview, adorned with the last gasps of an expired golden age as captured on Polaroid and disposable Kodak cameras.
Listen to “What You’re Doing To Me” below, and pre-order Capsule Losing Contact here.