By distorting hard boiled film and classic instrumental music through a dark, overcast lens, Diminished Men refocus their influences into something entirely unique.  Their jagged, hard-charging approach evokes images of slit jugulars and accelerated heart rates, all the while swathing you in a blissful claustrophobia.  Drawing elements of Link Wray, Morricone's dissonant horror scores, gritty noir and Joe Meek's sickly productions, as well as the provocative imagery of filmmakers like Wim Wenders and Jean-Pierre Melville, synthesizing them into something truly organic and original.  "Capnomancy" (Jan 2013), their second release on Abduction Records, run by Alan Bishop of the legendary Sun City Girls and the Sublime Frequencies label, is a collection of stark instrumentals, full of high tension energy and infected terror. Cloaked in a supernatural fog and electrical storms, chiaroscuro landscapes read like a sci-fi postcard with a Giallo ransom note attached.  One of the last albums to be recorded at his now defunct Aleph Studio, producer Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Earth, Wolves in the Throne Room, etc.) contributes greatly with his visceral, heavy production, making this album their darkest offering yet.   Their first full length "Names of the Dead" from 2005 introduced the bands cinema obscura ethos.   A bizarre series of cassettes 2006-2008 "American Volume Swells" and the more recent 2012 "Six O' Clock Baby" album revealed a raw and unchecked side of the band through live recordings, improvisations and collage.   It was their 2009 "Shadow Instrumentals" record on the Abduction label that got the band wider recognition for their creative and distinctive sound. A superbly crafted mosaic of speakeasy hallucinations and haunted geography, full of lush production and ambitious arrangements. Besides the Italian western overtones, Khorshid Egyptian guitar passages, murder-blues drama and flipped out electronic space psych, are perhaps the best surf inspired tracks in years.  A shape-shifting set of music, opening yet another wormhole to the groups varied influences.  Formed in 2005 by guitarist Steve Schmitt and drummer Dave Abramson, Diminished Men are an integral part of Seattle's unique and prolific underground music scene.  Abramson, also a member of Master Musicians of Bukkake, has done time in Climax Golden Twins and has collaborated with Secret Chiefs 3, Eyvind Kang, Six Organs of Admittance, Grails, etc.  Multi-instrumentalist Simon Henneman has released two solo records and plays guitar in the free jazz duo WA with iconic Northwest drummer Gregg Keplinger.