The Perfect Drone: Search and Destroy

My favourites:

Charlemagne Palestine's golden-ratio drones on Five Manifestations

That Haino album which is all drone - So, Black Is Myself? - I really need a copy of that.

The harmonium drones on Jim O'Rourke's Happy End are very nice too.

This thread makes me want to go down Rough Trade, alas I am in Oxford and have not much spare cash.

Finally, a lot of Indian Classical music (of which I hear on Radio 3' late Junction). Someday I might get enough cash to check that out.

The quality I look for in drone is, for lack of a better word, "complexity." I like extended tones with a lot going on, layers of sound where you can focus on this or that part for minutes at the time or just let the whole thing wash over you. Minimal drones like "Music on a Long Thin Wire" don't do as much for me for this reason. I like playing drone music really loud while I'm reading. Then I can raise my head for a moment or two and focus intently on a small part of the music before going back to the text.

Windy & Carl make pretty, soothing drone music (some might call it New Age) that sounds great at volume. Antartica is probably my favorite by them. I also dig the Stars of the Lid _Music for Nitrious Oxide_, where guitar drones are mixed with weird bits from Texas radio, giving the flavor of an intercepted transmission. For more abrasive, unsettling drones I like the C-Schulz & Hajsch album that came out on Sonig last year -- someone mentioned the harmonium, which is used heavily on that record, something about that instrument is so visual, like sound transformed into light.

I haven't heard Lazer Guided Melodies in a while, but would you really call that drone music? Compared to EAR?

As I mentioned in a recent thread, I really like the "Storm Of/ Throne Of/Swarm Of Drones" collections for drowining out the sounds of air-conditioners and refrigerators and people talking in the next room.

Also, let's not forget "Augmn" off Can's 'Tago Mago.' I guess it's not really a drone all the way through, but it's definitely got those qualities. It goes without saying almost, but what Czukay did production-wise with such limited resources is always a source of amazement for me.

I love drones. And I agree with Tom to some extent, that guitar- based drones are often too short--and, may I add, they are often not droney enough. I do, however, like well-done guitar-based drones (like the aforementioned Labradford one, although surely there's some Moog in there).

I can't see "drone music" like this as being fitting background noise - it's too distracting (even though it stays constant - actually, the reason it's distracting is because of its constancy). I'm all for mixing drones with songs - when done effectively, it sounds great. (Can't think of any examples off hand, though.)

la monte young & the theatre of eternal music brass band - the second dream of the high-tension stepdown transformer from the four dreams of china. eight trumpets. four carefully chosen alternate-tuned pitches that fade and overlap and glisten and buzz.

alan licht - "polarity". for an example of how guitars can be used to generate real sustained atmospheric drones, though the delay ticking can become irritating.

for a little more on top:

early theatre of eternal music recordings of pieces like "early tuesday morning blues," "the over day," "the fire is a mirror," etc. a sustained drone with fluttery saxes and sometimes drums improvising from a limited pitch range, which gives a drone-like effect as well.

charlemagne palestine & pan sonic - mort aux vaches. a slowly creepily building resonant drone. gradually clicks and scrapes begin raining down.

(obviously, any indian classical music provides a good example of what can be done when incorporating a drone into melodically and rhytmically intricate climactic music.)

i was disappointed by the day of the niagara, the official eternal music release. while i usually like or don't mind lo-fi sound, on this recording the resonances resulting from the tuning, which make the piece interesting, were just about inaudible. none of the performances came out clearly, which made the entire recording fairly indistinct and samey.

In addition to the other La Monte Young pieces listed above (really, does anyone do it better?), I'd suggest the long outta print (thank you Napster) "Black Album." 25 minutes of him and his wife Marian ZIforgetherlastnameforgiveme on vocal drone (at times reminding me oddly of Eye from the Boredoms) and then 25 minutes or so of bowed gong. The voice piece works really well for early in the morning, the gongs late at night.

The "officiality" of Day of Niagara is hotly contested as most know; I will be a very happy boy if Young ever gets off his ass and releases the mountain of tapes he's supposedly sitting on.

Also, Jess, it's Marian Zazeela, by the way.

Phil Niblock - poss. my fave droner, unusual choice of instrumental sounds, deep bass rumblings, best played at cop-fucking volume. His new alb on Touch has a great piece derived from Jim O'Rourke's Hurdy-Gurdy playing.

Arnold Dreyblatt - not pure drone maybe - although his 'The Sound of One String' retrospective on Table of the Elements is pretty minimal - but very unique sound. Think Spacemen 3 fans would really dig the 'Nodal Excitation' disc that came out on Dexter's Cigar a few years back, and his 'Animal Magnetism' rec on Tzadik is beautifully recorded small orchestra stuff. Would love to hear his music played live and loud to get full effect of unusual tunings, sonorities etc.

Henry Flynt - 'Celestial Power'. Finally available on CD. Flynt a fiddle player and Fluxus fellow traveller who sounds like a hillbilly Tony Conrad.

Folke Rabe - 'What??' Also released on Dexter's Cigar a few years ago, awesome Swedish electronic drone music. Another one for the Spacemen fans, 'cos it sounds just like E.A.R., only recorded in 1970!

Richard Youngs - 'Advent'. It's Youngs week on ILM! His first solo alb, v. simple, noisy and nasty dronerock played on piano, guitar, and a Conrad-like oboe.

'Triangles' - new alb on Moikai. Great mixture of glitchy electronics, Gunter-like silences and long drone passages. A bit of a find.

Voice as drone - Steve Reich's 'Come Out' and 'It's Gonna Rain' (collected on 'Early Works' CD), Alvin Lucier's 'I am Sitting in a Room' (one phrase that slowly transforms into abstract sound), Robert Ashley's 'Automatic Writing', big fave w/Nurse With Wound.

Any of Thomas Koner's solo recs are gd; first Town and Country alb includes some v. nice Feldman-esque droney drifts, a bit like Godspeed!; my Haino picks wld be Fushitsusha's 'The Wisdom Prepared' (72 minute single track that covers pretty much all the bases) and his solo alb 'I Said, This is the Son of Nihilism' on TOE; David Grubbs' 'Apertura' collab w/Mats Gustaffson and O'Rouke's 'Remove the Need', and of course anything by the world's greatest live performer, Charlemagne Palestine.

Finally, want to put in a good word for 'Days of Niagra'. OK, the sound is horrible, loads of tape glitches that really spoil the mood, no real seperation of instruments, the vocals are basically inaudible - but wot a glorious noise!! When it first cranks up it's like Merzbow or something, and pretty much stays like that for the next 30 minutes or so. Always does the trick with non-drone loving pals - "turn this shite off" etc. Anybody heard the Cale archive stuff on TOE yet? Plus there's that amazing Young drone on the OHM box set, which still blows my mind every time I hear it.

i would still rather listen to metal machine music than day of the niagara.

in re: charlemagne palestine, i don't find anything by him terribly impressive except for "karenina" and the third, title track on _alloy_, which has an ensemble cast (including tony conrad) working on a massive, primordial drone/clang thing.

definitely, search whatever your equivalent of napster is for the la monte young early stuff, particularly the black album. which needs to be bootlegged, soonest.

other simple drones i dig: alan lamb's _primal image_ - recordings of wind vibrating power lines.

reynols/pauline oliveros - outstanding, makes the rest of the reynols oeuvre seem kind of ridiculous.

scorces (s/t) on wholly other - christina of charalambides (no mean droners themselves lately) and heather of ash castles doing drones on chord organ, bells and voice. impressively intuitive, scary.

takehisa kosugi _catch-wave_ - $30 reissue of a 1970s LP. one side is voice, the other is drone violin played through lots of filters, echo, etc. very 'cosmic' (maaaan), sort of terry riley quality, too. excellent. i'll trade tapes of it with anyone who wants it and doesn't want to lay down that much cash.

from a more noisy perspective, it's almost impossible to go wrong with birchville cat motel (siberian earth curve), ashtray navigations (tristes tropiques, the black clock), or vibracathedral orchestra (my gate is open tremble by my side, versatile arab chord chart).

one night, on my radio show, i layered kevin drumm's _comedy_, paul panhuysen's _partitas for long strings_, tony conrad and alexandra gelencser's live 10", and jim sauter/don dietrich's _bells together_ and tuned them together. i wish i had taped it. i was almost crying with joy at the beauty of it all. 'cause i'm such a nerd.

Jean-Francois Laporte's "Mantra" (Metamkine). It's the joyous sound of a skating rink's cooling compressor. For 21 minutes.

my suggestions: jim o'rourke's "a 1,2,3,4", the live version of "do you know how to waltz?" on low's "one more reason to forget".

ha, i found a review of that last night which claimed it was mostly just unlistenable static. guess i'll give it a go though.

more suggestions, people!

I've been ona bit of a drone kick during the past few months, and there are some things I find particulaRLY pleasing, though I'm not sure I can say why, or what makes good v. bad drone...

Deep Listening Band w/ Pauline Oliveros
Maeror Tri
Troum
some of the Birchville Cat Motel stuff is great drone
Acid Mothers temple has some great drone pieces, especially their version of Riley's 'In C', and 'La Novia'
some of the longer Tower Recordings pieces hit droneland

ditto most of the above, especially Bardo Pond, Skullflower, Earth {and Sunn o)))}

Adding in a couple of others:

Stars Of The Lid - Avec Laudenum
Harmony Rockets - Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void

Or am I a hopeless amateur here?

Get outta here ILM, who needs tunes? And, anyway, she does have tunes

strange, i was drinking pepsi and listening to robbie basho last night. we should hang out!!!

Anyone have the new Roots of Drone compilation yet? It's the most whacked-out mixtape you'll ever hear. It's been available as MP3's since last year but they're releasing it on CD too.

i've been enjoying this comp from '95 lately:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Throne-Of-Drones/release/173049

all those Asphodel comps are great, there's at least three.

Thanks for the heads up on the compilation, just pre-ordered it, here's a lovely mysterious drone piece from the Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQlsT0-SZZE

Stuart Dempster, Underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel.
― Josh, Tuesday, August 7, 2001 7:00 PM (13 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink