Black Lung goes US-Army friendly with 'Full Spectrum Dominance'

In March 2008 electronic/alternative musician David Thrussell aka Black Lung was commissioned by Darpa (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - a funding body of the U.S Government and the Pentagon) to produce a recording that reflects the ideals and reality of Vision 2020, a futuristic military strategy program that first saw the light of day in May of 2000. Working with a sizeable budget and unprecedented access to defense installations and personnel, Thrussell took over a year to complete the project and wove many field recordings as well as the sounds of sensitive hardware and technology into the final product.

Don't believe the story? Well, we neither and as we checked www.darpa.mil we could not find any news linked to this either. However, Thrussell says it's all true, in fact he says that one of the greatest thrills for him "was setting up a full P.A. inside one of the ICBM silos at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California to run and record the final mix on the title track Full Spectrum Dominance - room ambience and all!"

When asked if he sees any conflict between his latest project and his past stance as known critic of government and military activities, Thrussell is quick to retort, "No, not at all. I see my role first as a musical journalist - to present the information - there's plenty of time for editorializing later. And I've even invented my own sub-genre to describe the album's unique, crunchy, downbeat sound - Grave-step."

Released on Tympanik and available now. For those interested, here's a video of the post Soviet years of Darpa.