Known around the world for delivering up massive (and massively long) slabs of dark atmospheres like Field Recordings from the Edge of Hell (8 hours), The Hermit Seeks the Stillness (12 hours), and 30,000 Days (24 hours), Dirty Knobs returns from the other end of the spectrum with Do Not Let Your Kindness Be Weaponized Against You, 5 songs clocking a relatively demure 30 minutes. From the robotic whispered warning of the title track set over a family’s shared laughter, to the reverential echos of “We Sing the Sun,” and the almost-not-even-there of “Endure,” these songs take a much more delicate, almost hesitant approach than the smothering walls of sound that Dirty Knobs is known for. But the analog pulses and wails in “Closed Horizons” and “Welcome to Ghostbridge” do remind listeners of the dread just around the corner.

Zac Bentz is a musician living in Duluth, Minnesota who has been recording and performing for over 23 years. Dirty Knobs was formed in 1999 originally as a glitch/electro experiment, and was reborn as a dark ambient/doom project with 2011’s Field Recordings from the Edge of Hell, an album that found international acclaim. Since visiting the north of Norway and recording True Norwegian Black Drone in 2015, Dirty Knobs has worked to incorporate music into nature with recordings and performances both in and of the field. Do Not Let Your Kindness Be Weaponized Against You uses field recordings from the Norway sessions, as well as sounds from his hometown.

Previously:

“…I have little more to add…I swear I can hear organs playing from inside a pit…Wonderful.” —Warren Ellis, writer of Transmetropolitan, Gun Machine

“…relaxation music for Satan himself.” —Troy Sherman/Cornell Daily Sun

“An alternate soundtrack to a version of The Shining as directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, from the perspective of the Overlook’s otherworldly denizens, or The Haunting’s Hill House as occupied by a tired Dr. Phibes, his organ full of cobwebs and dust.” -April Larson / Ears For Eyes

“Listen to the aching, end of the world atmosphere in Låtefossen Tåke and imagine yourself climbing the hill posted in the artwork to take a final, knowing breath of air before the world permanently clouds over and snuffs away all life in oppressive blackness.” – toiletovhell.com

“…something quite extraordinary…haunting at points and shimmeringly beautiful at others. It sort of makes me want to listen to it forever.” —Andrea Swensson, City Pages/Gimme Noise