Steve A Schmitt
Music & composition / Motion graphics
Online & Zine Reviews
The WIRE UK review 2022 >(Print only review)
Noise, Industrial & Beyond by Emily Pothast Diminished Men / Damage Mécanique 2182 Recording Company kHz-1009 DL/LP. ~ When David Lynch and Mark Frost revived Twin Peaks in 2017, the most disappointing thing about it was that they didn't tap instrumental rock stalwarts Diminished Men for a gig in the road house. Legendary in the Seattle underground for nearly two decades, Diminished Men deliver a Northwest noir counterpoint to the Dick Dale meets the Antichrist atmospherics that gave Angelo Badalamenti's soundtrack for the TV show's original run its sinister aura. Damage Mécanique feels even grittier and more unhinged than previous outings. It opens with a percussive nod to Portishead's (and/or Jimi Hendrix's) "Machine Gun" and spirals out from there, incorporating grinding noise into tremolo-heavy surf guitar and electro western grooves that court chaos without ever falling apart. An alarm-like pulse blares throughout "Panopticon" but the band play on, unsettlingly unphased.
Third Man Records Maggot Brain ~ Diminished Men (print review)
Third Man Records, Maggot Brain ~ Diminished Men
(print review)
The Stranger Review 2022 by Dave segal
December 2022 review of Diminished Mens Damage Mechanique.
Quietus Review
Here is a review of our album ‘Vision in crime’ on the British online music and pop culture magazine Quietus, founded by John Doran and Luke Turner.
VICE magazine. Dilbert Mugabe. note- this review only appeared in print in a 2006 issue of VICE.
I usually refuse to listen to music without lyrics made after 1976, but producer Randall Dunn (who's worked with Sun City Girls, Sunn O))), Earth, etc.) made this album sound like it was recorded in a time vacuum. It falls under some tangential, unclassifiable genre that combines surf rock, space psych, weird Egyptian modal shit, and music that ghosts like. The only bad part is that they only made 500 vinyl copies, so you better figure out how to get it quickly or you won't be able to show your limp-wristed post-rock buds why Mogwai is for toddlers.
-Dilbert Mugabe, VICE MAGAZINE
Alan Bishop reviews The Diminished Men
Below is a review of our record by Alan Bishop of the legendary Sun City Girls & Sublime Frequencies record label, whom along the way has redefined ethnomusicology in the modern age, and also managed put out our record on his Abduction label.
The Herald of Scotland reviews Diminished Mens Vision in Crime.
Dave Segal, staff writer for the Stranger reviews Diminished Mens Six O’ Clock Baby.
Below is one of many reviews Dave Segal has written on Diminished Men.
