Album Notes

"...Heavy as plutonium, this, like a 21st century incarnation of Magma's operatic "zheul" onslaught. Disjointed, pounding drum programmes mix with deep, detuned bass guitar-riffs and electronic buzz saw drones to create a relentless suite of Industrial sludge-Prog heaviness."

Daniel Spicer
Jazzwise

"... Prepare your mind’s eye for a venture into a steely-edged and somewhat phantasmagorical joyride. The artists’ bag of tricks is rooted within an otherworldly mergence of King Crimson-type bone-crushing rhythms, along with riotous jazz riffs. James Huggett generates some shock treatment with his blitzing and rather weighty e-bass attack. And with some industrial music overtones, the quartet’s pulsating ostinato rhythmic gyrations serve as a foundation for a sonic trip into the halls of doom."

Glenn Arista
All About Jazz

"...I'm simply blown away by the complexity The Dematerialised Passenger. The album is one of the best to come out this year for sure. Technically, the album is flawless, every song seems to flow perfectly within the construct. People always say that the sophomore release is always the hardest, but Combat Astronomy show here that they're more than up for the task of recreating and exploring new areas of sound without losing what made them so great in the first place. Fans of heavy guitar-Industrial music will love this album for sure."

GunHed
Wetworkzine

After the acclaimed release of Lunik on cult german noise/industrial label Adnoiseam in 2001, reclusive mastermind James Huggett, gathered his forces and returning to the isolation of the studio again to begin a much more ambitious piece of work: a modern day industrial progressive epic that would represent everything he had strived and sacrificed for. Ending a five-year hiatus of playing guitar, his new songs began to form around a core of thick, gritty bass guitar and martial programmed acoustic drums.

A conversation with fellow British improvisational musician and composer Martin Archer sparked sparked a highly productive collaboration that led to the landmark Combat Astronomy album 'The Dematerialised Passenger', released in 2005. This album has received wide ranging critical acclaim from influential titles including avant-garde periodical The Wire for its single minded and multi-dimensional modern progressive fusion of metal, free-jazz and ambient noise into a compelling and unique whole.

Of this work, Huggett says it "…harks back to Godflesh or God, along with Magma and perhaps Heldon - but always sounding like nothing other than itself. I just cannot emulate other genres or styles of music. I've tried, I've failed. Combat Astronomy just creates itself through me, for better or worse. So now it's just a matter of making the best music I can with the best musicians I can find.".