Tag Archives: blog

Dirty Knobs – BIGMOTORCOIL: The Drone Engine

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https://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/bigmotorcoil-the-drone-engine

BIGMOTORCOIL is a philosophy of sound. A hulking machine fueled by ignited plasma and barely controlled rage. An electric blade thirsty for its wielder’s blood. A dance around pits of crackling phosphorescence. A darkness exploding with broken thunder. It is mindless and running headlong into you.

Everything by Zac Bentz.

Dirty Knobs – MUSIC PRODUCT: Sounds for no audience.

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https://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/music-product-sounds-for-no-audience

“MUSIC PRODUCT: Sounds for no audience. (Side effects may include wisps, new colors, and unwanted feelings of hope.)” is the third in a series of ongoing meditative explorations from auditory atmospherist Zac Bentz, aka Dirty Knobs. Following on the heels of the much darker “666666SUPERSATAN,” the three gentle pieces in this collection are interconnected by the same base tones, with each piece teasing out new layers and interactions while adding their own unique elements.

Everything by Zac Bentz

Dirty Knobs – 666666SUPERSATAN

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https://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/666666supersatan

released January 6, 2023

Three extended dark meditations. Rituals, summonings, incantations, trance-inducing mantras, temporary escape hatches. All elements were recorded live, though not necessarily together at the same time. No “loops” in the traditional sense, and almost no editing. Captured moments in time to be re-released as needed. Maybe to bring a little fire into frozen places.

Everything by Zac Bentz.

Dirty Knobs – MUSIC PRODUCT: Sounds for black hole tourism.

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https://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/music-product-sounds-for-black-hole-tourism

Dirty Knobs – MUSIC PRODUCT: Sounds for Black Hole Tourism.
(Side effects may include total perspective, roundabouts, and poor films.)

released September 2, 2022

Everything by Zac Bentz.

Dirty Knobs – MUSIC PRODUCT: Sounds to facilitate creativity.

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https://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/music-product-sounds-to-facilitate-creativity

Dirty Knobs – MUSIC PRODUCT: Sounds to facilitate creativity.
(Side effects may include wealth, adoration, and eventual ruin.)

We seem to be nearing the event horizon when all “content” is generated by an AI to suit our exact needs in the moment. An infinite playlist of moods. At its best, this could help us focus, or get through a tough time. At its worst it could easily turn us into nothing more than revenue streams until we burn out like overused rechargeable batteries. (Hmmm…maybe a good idea for a movie franchise…)

That’s where the concept and title of this release comes from. However the music within it is anything but artificially generated. All core elements were performed on analog equipment (without using sequencers) and captured live. It was made using a new discreet, easily portable “instrument” I finally managed to complete. A modular analog Eurorack system. Rather small compared to most, yet capable of producing its own galaxy of sounds. (Though I will admit that track 4 uses an additional outside effect pedal.)

Hopefully there will be more in this series. I wanted to wait until I had a couple more compiled before releasing them but let’s be honest, tomorrow is a wish until we’re there. Let’s not wait.

Thank you for your support. I hope you can share this with anyone who could use it.

released June 10, 2022

Everything by Zac Bentz (ASCAP)
©2022 Xero Music

Zac Bentz – Love’s Haunted Twin

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https://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/loves-haunted-twin

I’ve been recording music since 1993 under various monikers. One of them, Dirty Knobs, was originally a minimalist glitch project started in 1999. In 2011 it was reborn as an experiment in dark ambient and drone with the eight hour long album Field Recordings from the Edge of Hell, which received praise worldwide. Since then, Dirty Knobs has released dozens of albums spanning all realms of ambient, drone, soundscapes, cinematic soundtracks, and more, often exploring themes of deep time, vast space, hauntology, hermitage, and stillness.

After well over a hundred releases under several pseudonyms, Love’s Haunted Twin is the first full length album to be released under my own name. I figured it was high time to shed the protection offered by other guises and admit that this is all just me in the end. To that end, LHT takes cues from the bite sized sci-fi jingles of STATION IDENT as well as the massive droning expanse of Dirty Knobs, and hints of the electro pulses of The Electric Witch. It’s heavily influenced by Aphex Twin’s SAW vol 2, Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini’s collaborations, and a bit of Ian William Craig.

Scheduled for an early Valentine’s Day release (12022021), this album also falls on the ten year anniversary of the aforementioned Field Recordings from the Edge of Hell. Taking it a step further, the album art shares the image of the cherubic, enigmatically named Mary Jane that dominates the cover of Field Recordings. Love’s Haunted Twin sees her reunited with her twin sister. (Both sisters preside over two otherwise unmarked graves.) Thematically, where Field Recordings is an expansive, oppressive study of imagined beauty of the underworld, Love’s Haunted Twin gazes into the smaller reality of things lost, be they living, hoped for, or promised. A pop/ambient hybrid that smears persistent pasts and failed futures into ghostly reveries.

REMIXES:
zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/the-loss-we-gain-dirty-knobs-mix
zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/the-heat-from-your-wounds-the-wood-nymph-mix
zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/living-in-the-end-dirty-knobs-mix  

released February 12, 2021

Everything by Zac Bentz (ASCAP).
©2020 Xero Music

Zac Bentz – “The Heat from Your Wounds” (The Wood Nymph Mix)

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https://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/the-heat-from-your-wounds-the-wood-nymph-mix

The Wood Nymph mix of “The Heat from Your Wounds” from the album Love’s Haunted Twin by Zac Bentz.

zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/loves-haunted-twin

released January 8, 2021