John Davis

California's Students of Decay imprint has been a pre-eminent force from within the American sub-underground for almost a decade, unleashing a steady stream of crucial drone-centric releases. Ask the Dust, the latest missive from sonic sorcerer John Davis (not to be confused with the Folk Implosion member), is the 101st entry in the label's catalogue, and is quite possibly the most potent release from them to date. Davis utilizes an interdisciplinary approach when crafting his uncanny sound sculptures. Live instrumentation, software synth patches, field recordings and a newly-acquired modular synthesizer are all juggled expertly by the artist to draft up hyper-intricate, multi-dimensional tone fields that, like complex formulae, beg to be deconstructed. The level of detail that is immediately apparent when listening to these pieces – especially album opener "Superpartner" – demonstrates that Davis is a potent artist whose true capabilities are only revealed through deep listening.