Humanfobia x Confield - The Planet is Arrakis

 Released: May 28 

This latest album from Humanfobia in conjunction with industrial artist Confield is a bizarre, lurid, and exquisite tribute to the original Dune as directed by David Lynch. Even the artwork pays tribute to the era in which the original was produced, even to include that odd half-motion picture DOS-era game that accompanied it. Musically, the album is quite dark and abstract with a lot of odd synth work that varies from elongated soundscapes to noisy pieces of cacophonous mess. All of this strange sound design plays in very well with the vocals as well, which varies as well from unclear and murky vocalizations to clear and accurate reciting of lines from the movie. It feels very surreal and actually quite true to the source material. 

Some of the pieces seem to stick much closer to the source material while other pieces take looser inspiration. The Planet is Arrakis” feature the most iconic lines from the film including those about the spice. The musical accompaniment begins on ambient vibes and quickly evolves into an off-kilter beat with environmental noises surrounding it. Whether the vocals here and in a few other parts are directly sampled from the movie or re-created is unclear, but they are interwoven into the sci-fi soundscapes in the background quite wonderfully. The third track, “House of Harkonnen at Giedi Prime” features more of these airy and strange vocals while errant harsh textures dance around a sparse and clicky rhythm. Later on, “Weirding Modules” revamps this theme with a slightly more complex rhythm while adding even  more odd ear candy and some muddled bits of dialogue seemingly pulled direct from the movie.  

The album as a whole is quite enveloping. The vibe of the album is that of a passion project short film, intertwining original material with new interpretations and angles to makes something that captures the original surrealism present in the film while adding a new sonic context that avoids betraying the original. Which is actually quite impressive to be boiled down to roughly 45 minutes considering the epic nature of the movie. It is odd, unusual, unique, and pays homage to Lynch’s work magnificently.