Diamondstein - ‘Dead City 1.1’ Album Review
Dream Catalogue, one of the most prominent labels defining and redefining vaporwave and electronic music as a whole in the internet age has been putting out work from some of the most creative artists that I’ve heard in recent memory. As the name might suggest, the content of what the label releases usually sticks to dreamy, cinematic ambient and electronic music. It wasn’t until Diamondsein’s 2016 album ‘The Ridges’ that things got a little darker. The Dream Catalogue debut still followed the aesthetic of what the label had been putting out previously, albeit focusing on a more melancholic tone.
This time around, ‘Dead City 1.1′, the latest from Diamondstein is being released on BLCR Laboratories, a label that shares some artists with Dream Catalogue. The approach on this new tape takes the darker aspects heard on ‘The Ridges’ and condenses it into just four tracks, the first and last of which are of a lengthier run time focusing more on creating droning atmospheres that cater to the more experimental side of electronic music.
The album starts off bold, with a pulsating drone accompanied by blasts of grimy, osculating synth. ‘Alive With Rust’, the 20 minute first track off of Diamondstein is definitely going to test the patience of its listeners, filtering out those who really want to listen from those who are just giving the album a quick listen. It isn’t so much that this track is even abrasive - what is going to be challenging for listeners is deciding if they really want to hear a meandering 20 minutes of synth flexing without wondering why it couldn’t be cut down to 10 minutes and still have the same effect.
However, for those who stick around, they will be treated to some gorgeous building ambient music. ‘Baths’ is pretty much the antithesis to its predecessor - much shorter and more structured - as structured as ambient music gets; the track builds on a single drone, adding tasteful amounts of static noise throughout that gives these otherwise clean synths some texture. What Diamondstein accomplishes on this record is their ability to have plenty of variation while still remaining true to their sound. This is apparent on the third track, ‘The Last Box’, which features what sounds like a xylophone as the main element throughout the track lending the track a prog-rock vibe that reminds me of a film score for an 80′s horror film.
There are plenty of elements of ‘Dead City 1.1′ that I enjoyed, however, with just four tracks, what is great here feels unbalanced, weighed down by the extended length of ‘Alive With Rust’ and ‘MSK’, the latter of which has a beautiful ending, featuring haunting piano and backing electronics but is also thrown off dynamically by the meandering build of the first half of the track.
Grab the cassette here.
Diamondstein | BLCR Laboratories
Favorite Tracks: ‘Baths’
Least Favorite Tracks: ‘Alive With Rust’
For Fans of: Artists on Dream Catalogue
Release Date: 5 April 2017









