KSA by Poison Damage

If you’re looking to escape the unempathetic machinery of industrial capitalism, Kansas City ambient artist Poison Damage suggests you avoid wasting your time looking into an agricultural life. On their new record KSA, Poison Damage lays out a pristine, natural soundscape before inviting in a harsh, cold rhythm cobbled together with jarring samples and rigid drum machines. Initially, field recordings intermingle with warm synth tones, creating a scene like the plains under a vivid sunset. From just behind the horizon, however, a slow yet certain march encroaches, bringing with it bulletproof bureaucracy, unsolvable resource shortages, and factory farms. Every second of this record transports you into an extremely specific scene, giving you both the outside sensory details and the accompanying internal sense of urgency and alienation. All the while, KSA refuses to leave you stranded in any particular sonic environment, telling a distinct story that encourages movement between each scene. Even in the record’s most artificial moments, however, a glimmer of natural beauty still glides in from above, showing that even the most inhuman and unnatural systems must bend a knee at least slightly to the world they inhabit.