Perhaps the song I'm most proud of on the album, Magnetic Mountain was originally intended as a cover of Mark Guiliana's Make Me Dance, Make Me Dance, but obviously something went horribly wrong and it rapidly turned into something else entirely. The electronic elements of the track took a very long time to get right, but I think I managed to achieve a very satisfying balance between dancey electronic song and funky rock song. I thought it was a fun idea to make a track in 5/4 sound as simple as possible, and abused a four on the floor pattern that doesn't give up until the strange bridge. Feeling like the song was lacking something, I got Derick to add funky guitar in the verses - influenced by synth pop such as Roosevelt's self-titled album.
Regarding how it fits conceptually to Duma, Magnetic Mountain is perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle, and was intended to be the name of the album (before lots of criticism saying it sounded like a "Disney ride"! However, I still kept it as the track title). The title is derived from the book of the same name written by historian Stephen Kotkin about Magnitogorsk, an industrial city in Russia named after the Magnitnaya Mountain, a geological anomaly that once consisted almost completely of iron ore. The official motto of the city is "The place where Europe and Asia meet", as the city occupies land in both Europe and Asia.
Most importantly, the track is about Josef Stalin's rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union through his 5 Year Plans, paving the way for the Great Terror of the late 1930s, the main focus of the next track, Paean of Praise. The samples in the track are derived from several Stalin speeches, and the ending is an excerpt from the final speech given by Stalin, at the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the USSR on 14 October 1952.
credits
from Duma,
released April 27, 2018
Written by Downton
Atumatu is an experimental rock project with progressive and electronic elements founded and led by drummer Quinn Downton, and enlists the talents of other musicians from around the world.
With his ISA project Dan Curhan has created an extreme experimental progressive metal album (described by Dan as "technical deathgaze") in 'Chimera'. Recommended for fans of music that meshes genres! Atumatu
supported by 13 fans who also own “Magnetic Mountain”
I absolutely LOVE Dark Matter and think it is one of PT's best early tracks that holds up to even their best work in the early 2000s, and this particular live performance is sublime! kilimajaro
supported by 12 fans who also own “Magnetic Mountain”
Huge thanks for that! Now I know how to get my young ones into progressive metal! But I need to figure out how to answer possible questions about tripping on drugs In space... Facemelter
Throwing mathcore, emo, and ambient into the mix, Estonia's Kaschalot push progressive rock's multitasking approach to its limits. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 10, 2021