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God Body Disconnect is the lone cinematic dark ambient project of Bruce Moallem. Though the exact time frame of his moniker’s founding is unknown to us, his debut album, Dredge Portals, released on the Oregon-based Cryo Chamber label in January 2016. The album articulates the melancholic tale of an individual who views the world passing him by as he exists in a comatose state after tragically being shot. What makes this album particularly novel is Bruce’s use of spoken word to speak to us, the listeners. Now, relative to the Cryo Chamber discography that existed before Bruce’s debut on the label, spoken word was used in albums such as Atrium Carceri’s Metropolis; however, Bruce’s delivery steeps us in a blanket of candidness that I personally have never experienced in the dark ambient genre until his debut. The personal touch his voice imbues within each utterance, the heft of anticipation forged between each sentence delivered creates an indelible and lingering impression that leaves Bruce sounding like a friend you haven’t heard from in ages. But when you reconnect with him, it’s as if the kinship between you and he has not degraded; you can pick up a conversation with him several years later, even decades, and it’s like nothing has ever changed.
His follow-up record, Sleeper’s Fate, continues the intricate tale embodied in Dredge Portals. Though in this one we receive a new beam of shimmering light that elucidates the events that transpired on that fateful night in his debut. Bruce continues his narration and this album features several dreamy-like passages that wisp via the pulse of minimalist drumming. It conjures a sense of abstract post-rock, which was carried forward into his collaborative effort with Atrium Carceri and Cities Last Broadcast, Miles to Midnight, as well as in his latest LP, The Mist Between Mirrors.
The Mist Between Mirrors marks a new chapter in the exploration of Bruce’s being. Relative to his preceding albums, Mirrors harbors a keen sense of introspectiveness. Field recordings, many of which he gleaned from a trip to Iceland, melt into the album’s fabric. And Bruce so masterfully enmeshes them within the aforementioned post-rock textures. Ambient guitar textures rise like billows of verdant vapor, quivering amidst the incandescence of a fading sun. Only in the opening track do we hear a monologue from Bruce, which suggests a conceptual tethering to Dredge Portals and Sleeper’s Fate. For both Connor and myself, The Mist Between Mirrors called to mind several opaque memories from our respective childhoods and through this sonic dredging, a sense of longing pervaded. We sincerely hope you enjoy our review of Bruce’s latest work. Thank you so much for listening.
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You can acquire a digital or physical copy (CD) of The Mist Between Mirrors via Cryo Chamber’s Bandcamp page. There, you can also peruse all of God Body Disconnect’s work, including Dredge Portals, Sleeper’s Fate, Locus Arcadia, and Miles to Midnight.
If you would like access to our notes for this episode, you can peruse/download those by becoming a patron on our Patreon page. Thank you for your continued support.
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