"Part 1: When I'm No Longer Afraid Of You" is absolutely stunning. You start out in a black hole, seeing and hearing nothing. It is the very sound of silence. As you edge closer beyond the event horizon, you can see an infinitesimally small dot of light, a star trillions of light years away, and you can hear the dust of space. You focus your entire energy on that tiny star as you drift towards it and it slowly grows in size and volume. Eons pass, and before you know it, it comes to encompass your entire field of view, endlessly bright and deafeningly loud. You float on the outer edge, basking in its unfathomably glorious static, blissfully unaware of anything else. Time stops. Universes are born.
The shorter part 2, "Forgive To Forget," is less dynamic, with a dense foundation of hypno-organ that moves like the tide while organic synths shine on the wave crests. Wonderful body immersing beauty.
Dear Dad is a letter from Szczepanik to his father in music form. Do we know what he's trying to say? Maybe. Does it matter? Maybe not. The sounds might affect you more emotionally if you have that knowledge, but it's by no means necessary, and Dear Dad is going to be every bit as gorgeous either way.
I wasn't going to do a Top 10 list this year. I figured my Top 1 list was sufficient because that was so clearly the one thing that made such a life changing impact on me. But then the fine folks of Weirdo Records asked me to make a Top 10 for them. I couldn't turn them down, obviously, and it was an excuse to do something that I really wanted to do all along. I love making lists. And people love reading them. I don't know why I withheld from something that everyone so clearly wanted.
Once I made my list for Weirdo, though, I realized that about 75% of it was comprised of drone records. So to make things more interesting, I decided to make a Top 10 list of just drone records.
Links go to original reviews. Please check out the other lists at Weirdo because that's where this originally came from. Now, onto the heckling!
7.Keith Fullerton Whitman's Dream House Variations (Arbor) 4 tapes of differing length meant for simultaneous play and manual fucking around (fast forwarding, speed manipulation, etc) is encouraged. This is just fucking brilliant. Oh, and the music's great too.
6.Acre's Isolationist (Isounderscore) Even though two of the three tracks on this were previously released (though unheard by me and therefor irrelevant), the brand new track is awesome enough to warrant being in everyone's top 10 list. It's the densest, warmest, drone ever and came right in time for winter.
4.The Golden Sores' A Peaceable Kingdom (BloodLust!) This is where drone is going. The is the new drone of the future. Everything about this record is utterly fantastic. Chill ambient style, guitar psych feedbackage, and everything else. This is how it's done.
3. Mountains' Choral (Thrill Jockey) (motherfuckers deleted my fucking review) Unbelievably amazing ambient naturey organic drone. So life affirming. Put this record on and your stress is instantly zapped. Motherfuckers deleted my fucking review, so here's the same label approved mp3 I put up the first time. Mountains - Choral
2.Jason Crumer's Walk With Me (Misanthropic Agenda) This is the noisiest drone record I've heard all year. Sometimes it gets almost unbearably rowdy but it's the kind that gives you chills. The final two songs are probably the best sequenced tracks of the year.
1.Eluvium's Life Through Bombardment (Temporary Residence Limited) This takes the number one spot with ease. Every Eluvium album on vinyl for the first time. It's like hearing each record anew and in the proper way. Plus, have you seen the packaging on this beast? It's gorgeous and epic. It's a fuckin BOOK. And it's personalized. TRL really went for broke on this and it's absolutely worth every penny.
Pretty sure this is the year of the drone. Or maybe it's just me. But I can't remember the last time there were this many mind blowing drone records in a single year (Mountains, Golden Sores, etc). Now we can add Nicholas Szczepanik's debut full length to the list.
The Chiasmus is fucking enormous. Super spacious drone, tons of breathing room, just open your ears and float around. Everything is slow moving and wide open, yet still contained. I get the feeling like I'm drifting through the cathedral sized room in some undiscovered prehistoric cave system. Somewhat dank and ominous but mostly breathtaking and heartwarming.
Most of the song titles are especially apt at describing the music found within, like "Temporary Inundation Of Sleep By Open Windows" and "Lose Yourself..." But "We Define Everything In Desperation" is a real charmer and definitely one of my favorites with it's smooth hidden tones that hover around the blissful ceiling. And "The Silhouettes Of A Winter's Sunset" is absolutely fucking gorgeous. Heavenly colors weaving back and forth through each other, creating a blanket of euphoria.
I can't believe how staggeringly amazing This Chiasmus is. I mean, not that Szczepanik isn't qualified (he clearly is), but I guess this just kinda came out of left field for me. Maybe I shouldn't be too surprised with someone who has great enough taste to put out albums by Ophibre and Medroxy Progesterone Acetate (Szczepanik runs SRA, which seems kind of the norm for noise/drone dudes these days). But I digress. The Chiasmus is top fucking notch and basically deserves a spot in everyone's drone collection, especially with it's beautiful 16 page booklet filled with photos from Avery McCarthy.
I Want To Review Your Music If you make music and you want it reviewed on my blog, just send me an e-mail. I would love to hear what you're making and give you a little more exposure in the process.
Disclaimer All of the music on this site is for promotional and sampling purposes only. If you enjoy it, please consider buying the record or going to see the band live. They will appreciate it, I promise. If you own the rights to a song on this site and you would like it removed, please contact me and I will do so as quickly as my tiny paws allow.
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