Substak hails from Greece and has released several albums on Inner Demons. They have generally been pretty short, and this is no exception at around 22 minutes. The label describes this as “textural and granular drones with other elements and noise keeping his dark and hypnotic style.” Sounds nice, and I enjoyed his other releases, so let’s see what dark nature has to say.

The first track, “Dark Nature Talks part a,” is heavy drone with warbling noise that sounds like boiling water with tectonic plates shifting over it. Lots of pulsing bass and a bit of crackling noise to give it some texture. It’s a bit repetitive, but interesting. “Dark Nature Talks part b” keeps a similar approach but brings the static to the forefront. Layers and layers of heavy bass punctuated by chiming noises and other sounds thrown in. Of the two, part b is the stronger track with more layers to keep it interesting.

What really makes this work is that it all blends in seamlessly with your surroundings. The first time I listened to this, I was listening to it through headphones in the mall while waiting for my car to be fixed. Reverberating voices on tile floor as people walked past me added an interesting dynamic to the music. Some albums are referred to as “cinematic,” and this one works well as background for whatever is around you. In fact, I would recommend listening to this in an area that's kind of noisy. That said, it does hold up on its own merits, as a subsequent listen in a quieter environment showed. Well worth checking out for fans of noisy dark ambient.