Duster

Santa Cruz's revered slowcore / space-rock outfit Duster return today with a surprise new album, "In Dreams", the band's fifth full-length record and one that continues their inclination of sonically capturing an open-ended question. 

Across the 13 songs of "In Dreams", the band hone in on their trademark dark, droning guitar tones, layered textures and introspective lyrics, while exploring synth-heavy and drum machine avenues throughout. At the height of their lo-fi powers, it finds Duster delivering an album that expertly captures the band’s signature atmospheric sound and expanding on it ever further.

"In Dreams" continues the band's forward momentum since reforming in 2018 and follows a recent single, “Anhedonia II” b/w “Ecstasy Cowgirl”, created in collaboration with production duo Dirty Art Club, and the 25th anniversary reissue of Duster's debut album, "Stratosphere", a record that their label Numero Group sent a copy of to space on September 29th last year, its release date.

"In Dreams" is available digitally everywhere now, with a physical release on cassette, CD, standard black vinyl and crystal clear LP to follow on December 6th.

There will also be a limited edition Space Trash Splash (pictured below) LP available exclusively through the Numero Group store.
 

In the wake of "In Dreams", the band are also set to head out across the US  on an extensive run of headline tour dates with support from Dirty Art Club. The tour will start on 27th September.

More about Duster:

San Jose’s sonic cure-all for the Y2K hangover that never materialised, Duster emerged from a cloud of lonely bong rips to take indie rock to the moon, and beyond. Home recording accidents and blown-out 2 AM studio experiments resulted in the band’s 1998 debut LP Stratosphere. Quickly after the turn of the century, Duster went on an extended break. This hiatus lasted 18 years, until 2019 when Chicago-based archival record label Numero Group reissued all of Duster's earlier material on the highly successful 4LP boxset, Capsule Losing Contact. The band would also return with a new self-titled LP, also released in that same year.

This reformation of the band helped grow its popularity, but it was the pandemic and the millions of teen hours spent doom scrolling on TikTok that accelerated the band’s reach. Just as Duster-mania was hitting its stride, the band released their fourth LP - 2022’s Together - via the Numero Group and soon after could be found on numerous headlining tours, selling out venues all over the US. As of August 2024, “Inside Out” has been streamed 12.7 billion times on TikTok, and the band have nearly 2 and a half billion streams across other DSPs.

Last year, we found ourselves full circle at the 25th anniversary of the band's seminal debut album, Stratosphere. Best listened to inside the womb, it was a record that both capped off and reinvented slowcore’s first wave. Hazy, arpeggiated guitars layered over a deliberate drummer with no real place to be, as semi-inaudible vocals warn of millennial malaise and subtly encouraged the listener to “rock out, rock out, rock out, rock out.”

Here in 2024, "In Dreams" maintains the band's deeply evocative style while traversing new sonic terrain. A must-listen in their catalogue, and with an extensive string of live dates set to follow, it signifies another exciting new chapter for the rejuvenated band.