Evestus

Inside the liner notes of Evestus’s new CD, below all the credits, lies the phrase, "Have a nice apocalypse!” and the feeling evoked by that phrase is like the feeling evoked by Wastelands on the whole — good-natured pessimism. Wastelands is a shifting soundscape of moods and tones, a collage of industrial, jazz, techno, trance, and numerous other (mostly electronic) styles of music and samples, with traditional instruments and machines, and violence and restraint. There’s even a little reassurance, with loops that worm their way into the depths of your brain and swim around there for days at a time. Inspired by the computer game Fallout 2, this post-apocalyptic diary from a world that might have been maintains a narrative flow even if you have little idea what that tale is trying to say, lending its sounds to casual listening, but its layers of nuance ultimately reward a deeper attention.