Duster: Stratosphere (gold dust coloured vinyl) [NUMERO]

Why you'll love it

This Numero Group pressing comes on gold dust coloured vinyl, a fitting nod to the album's own "Gold Dust." Stratosphere grew from a little-heard 1998 debut into one of the most loved records in slowcore and lo-fi, enough to bring the band back after nearly two decades away.

This edition

• Gold dust coloured vinyl
• Limited edition

About the album

Some albums arrive quietly and then refuse to leave. Duster formed in San Jose in 1996, when Clay Parton and Canaan Dove Amber set up a home studio in a converted living room, called it Low Space Orbit, and started filling four-track and eight-track tapes with slow, hazy songs about leaving the everyday behind.

Stratosphere came out on Seattle's Up Records in 1998, with Jason Albertini adding drums to several tracks. "Moon Age" opens in a drift of astral lounge, "Heading for the Door" and "Inside Out" ride brittle, reverb-soaked guitars, and "Constellations" and "Docking the Pod" lean into the space-rock theme. The vocals sit low and murmured in the mix, which is very much the point; it all sounds like a transmission from somewhere far off.

The cover photo was taken in Alberta, by the way, from a 1970 issue of Life, so there's a little bit of Canada floating up there too. We'd call it the closest Alberta has come to orbit, though we haven't checked with Edmonton.

Also at Kops: more Duster on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Numero Group (cat# NUM1286), a reissue of the 1998 album.