Groove Modulator' stays firmly fixed in the darkness, with a Burial style low end backdrop, with energetic scratches. An exciting moment for me was the relatively obscure Back To The Future samples, with Michael J Fox's Marty McFly pitch shifted just out of immediate recognition.

'Elvish Has Left The Building' takes things in a more firmly post rock direction, with its wailing guitar, hunkering bass, and clattering drums, all of which pull together as the guitars explode into a rich and cataclysmic crescendo. There are softer moments too, like the Explosions In The Sky influenced 'Twin Radio Mouse' with its experimental electronic stylings that flitter and flutter across the track, while 'Nihongo' brings in a little world music flavour for good measure, with a smoky Satriani style guitar solo.

And The Are Us features a lot of guts and imagination, not least on 'HX-1′, which builds, ebbs, and flows with its dubby, post-rocky, glitchy mixture, and closing track 'My Own Private Travelizer' with its glacial digital delays and growling distorted guitars. This is an exciting record that successfully brings together a range of genres without feeling contrived. More than that, it very much succeeds in maintaining an interesting sound throughout the album, never getting boring, always offering a new surprise.

-Chris Martin

There is something new trending in the scene of hard house. A dynamic duo made up of two greatly talented people, named Dust Magnet and Drop.Kick.Pop have teamed up together and called themselves 'And They Are Us'.

They are planning on releasing a hard hitting album this year called 'Mind of the Machine'. The album includes 10 excellent tracks with a mix of sounds from different genres such as trance, jungle and hard house. You will become addicted to their catchy tunes such as 'HX-1' and 'My own Travelizer'. The album has a mix of different sounds on the tracks. 'HX-1' has a drum and bass rhythm mixed with different instruments, whereas 'My own Travelizer' is slow, setting a mellow atmosphere; yet it has a heavy and powerful production

'And They Are Us' have a raw talent and have successfully combined all genres from house to drum and bass into one album. This album has great production; it creates an upbeat and exciting atmosphere for you to just get up and dance, and with all the hard work they have put into the album, their each individual talent shines through massively. Look out and make sure you purchase the album, as it will be officially released on July 15th.

-Suzie (June 29, 2014)

Christopher Schreiner (aka Drop.Kick.Pop) has teamed up with visual artist/producer Dustin DeMilio (aka Dust Magnet) for a ground-breaking creative collaborative effort, entitled And They Are Us.

THe sound spans a range from brooding, dark grooves to break beats, accompanied by appropirately incendiary guitar work. The duo touches on genres from jungle, to hard house, to trance without staying long enough to suggest a preference for one or the other.

Live perfornaces feature a similarly dynamic range of video and imagery that reflect the texture of their glitchy, undulating, and often explosive sound. And They Are Us is a mind-bending audio/visual experience!

This duo consists of visual artist /producer Dustin DeMilio (aka Dust Magnet) and guitarist Christopher Schreiner (aka Drop.Kick.Pop). At Music Street Journal we've reviewed Schreiner before when was operating under the moniker "The Guy." This album isn't precisely progressive rock, but it's pretty close. It's also clearly progressive music. There is a lot of electronic sound and space music in the mix. Whatever you call this, though, I like it a lot. It's unusual, but also very interesting and entertaining.

Track by Track Review

Last Day of Summer
There is a spoken voice sample at the start (and later along the ride) that I think might be William Shatner. Either way, this gives way to a pounding, rocking jam that's also rather stripped down. Guitar and piano seem to fight with percussion for control. This is unusual, but it's also very cool.

Groove Modulator
We do get a groove on this. That said, the atmospherics and crunchy guitar sounds really lend a lot of the sound. Bits of sampled voice (I recognize a couple quick Michael J. Fox bits from "Back to the Future" as an example) are included on this along with space rock elements. There are some strange shifts and changes as this continues, but it remains intriguing.

Odyssey
This starts very symphonic. From there, though, it shifts out to an odd, but very cool soundscape. It has electronic music and a lot of soundtrack styled sound. This is almost space rock in some ways. There are more symphonic elements at play later in the piece, too. Overall, this is one of the oddest, but also one of the most successful compositions here.

Elvish Has Left the Building
Although this is also rather odd, it's got a lot of cool packed into it. It alternates between a mellower, electronic space music and a more rocking element. At times it feels close to something Djam Karet might do.

Mind of the Machine
Although there aren't huge changes from the last piece, this is almost more mainstream than that one was. It's got more of a groove to it. The contrast between harder rocking and mellower is still in place, though.

Twin Radio Mouse
This does have a dual element to it. On the one hand there's the gentle, mellower dreamy tapestry that bookends it. That section holds the bulk of the piece. Then, there is also the hard rocking edgier movement. The combination makes for a great piece of music. This does have some female non-lyrical vocals that are probably samples or loops.

Nihongo
Although there is still a trippy, dreamy vibe to a lot of this, it's also got more of a straightforward rocking sound from the guitar soloing. It still has space music and electronics built into the mix, though.

HX-1
Dark and mysterious, this is powerful. It's got a great combination of electronic space weirdness and heavy guitar.

Horizon (MIC)
Trippy and yet also possessing some real rock, this has a great groove. At times it makes me think of Pink Floyd just a little. There is definitely a spacey quality to this.

My Own Private Travelizer
In a lot of ways this is even more trippy and dreamy than the other music here. Still, it does manage to rock, as well. The whole thing is very effective, any way you slice it.


Review by G. W. Hill