Top 10 Drone Albums Of 2009

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!


10. Gregg Kowalsky's Tape Chants (Kranky)
Minimal long form tape drone meant for deeeep sleep and/or meditation and/or my favorite kind of parties.


9. Nicholas Szczepanik's The Chiasmus (Sentient Recognition Archive / Basses Frequences)
Enormous drone, fills your house/head with wonderful smooth tones, mostly of the euphoric variety.


8. Ophibre's Approaching The Ionized Piezo Kiosk (Earjerk)
Simultaneously melancholic and blissful drone tearing you in two for a half hour. Literally stunning.


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.


5. Usputuspud's Live In The Shit (The Nafs)
Murky drone disco. That's why.


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.

Show Worthy 8/17 - 8/23

Since I'm going to Weirdstock (or Chaos First, haven't decided yet) and because there's not too much going on this week, I'll make this short.



Double Awake
Monday, August 18
Double Awake at Weirdo Records (ddddonate, 8:00, all ages)
This guy rules. Power drone at it's finest. Not sure how rowdy it'll get at Weirdo. Might be more chill stuff but whatever he ends up doing, I assure you it will be awesome.



The Needy Visions via
Friday, August 21
The Needy Visions, Hilken Mancini at The Milky Way (FREEEEE, 9:00, 21+)
The Needy Visions are the new wave of Boston throwback to jangly '60s garage punk and they are tons of fun. Mancini's done a shit ton of stuff and is well placed alongside The Needy Visions on the bill at the NEW Milky Way (same cool place, different location).

Benny Nelson & Brandon Terzakis at Weirdo Records

Seriously guys, Weirdo Records is the place for live weekly experimental awesomeness. This is the third time I've been there within the past month and it looks like August & September are only going to be better. If you haven't gone yet, you're already missing out. This past show had Benny Nelson and Brandon Terzakis collaborating with a chord organ and prepared guitar (respectively).

They bookended their set with two pre-recorded pieces that they brought on CD. Regardless of how weird it was to sit there with the two of them doing nothing while their music played overhead, the music itself was pretty great. But the stuff they played live, that was something special.

It started out, literally, almost completely inaudible. The thunderstorm of pedestrians and traffic out on Mass Ave was either ridiculously distracting or added an interesting atmospheric/field recording feel to the music, depending on your viewpoint. Benny was pressing down on two organ keys, so I knew I was supposed to be hearing something, but Brandon was hunched over some electronics and his guitar so I couldn't be too sure if he was actively creating or not.

The music was so delicate and so subtle, I feel like even if I were listening to it at home or on my headphones, no matter how loud I turned it up, it would still be barely there. But slowly, very slowly, the volume increased. Every few minutes or so, I'd notice that it was louder than before, even though I couldn't pinpoint a specific time where it changed.

The piece lasted maybe 15 or 20 minutes, hardly changing at all, 95% static save for a slight wavering and the continual amplification. Benny's two fingers infinitely pressing those two keys, and Brandon doing who knows what with an e-bow and various pedals and knobs, doing almost nothing while making such light beautiful drone. Then, abruptly, the music cut out and I realized just how loud they got it cranked up. It was weird hearing nothing after I thought what I was hearing was bordering on nothing. They smoothed things out and cleansed your aural palette with a little more quiet tones before playing the last taped piece. The whole thing was simple, understated splendor.

Most likely you didn't see this show, as there were only a handful of people there (including plenty of local noise makers like KFW, Howard Stelzer, and Ophibre). So if you didn't, you can look forward to a split (not collaboration, sorry) between Benny and Brandon coming out soon courtesy of Mr. Whitman. Otherwise, just hope they'll do this again. And if they do, trust me, you don't want to miss it.

Goat Of Arms at Weirdo Records

I had no idea Goat Of Arms had such a following. When I went to Weirdo to see Steve Norton, there were only 6 people in the whole room. Last night when Goat Of Arms played it was the exact opposite. There must've been 20 to 30 bodies squished into this tiny closet sized record store along with a whole drum kit. It was very, um, intimate.

The band brought a large tray of chocolates that they handed out to the audience (which seemed to consist mostly of everyone who knew everyone else). There were also some Tofutti Cuties being passed around (peanut butter ftw!). Somebody brought their dog. It was more like a party or cookout with friends than a proper "concert." And that just made it all the more pleasant.

So Goat Of Arms are a girl/girl accordion/drum duo. Imagine an accordion accompanied to some percussion. That's pretty much what Goat Of Arms sounds like. It's nothing surprising or out of the ordinary. Not to dis their music or anything. They're fucking great. They play wonderfully charming minimal, slightly foreign sounding tunes that I haven't heard from the likes of anyone else (partially because they're the only accordion/drum duo I know of). It was entirely acoustic (anything else would've been madness) with most of the drums and cymbals having some sort of padding to soften the blow. The drummer would occasionally sing in Spanish, doing the whole aye-aye-aye yelping thing. It sounded like it had been a while since they last played live, with the sporadic slip-up in timing & synchronization and the periodical mis-starts but that all added to the semi-uncouth magic of the evening.

One of the highlights was halfway through their set, some kid walking by on the sidewalk shimmying his way through the front door to sneak one of the chocolates left right by the doorway. I don't know who he belonged to or how the hell he knew there was free chocolate inside. Everyone who noticed looked at each other completely baffled and incredulous. We silently laughed as the band continued playing, either not noticing or not caring. 'Twas a great night that you should've missed only if you went to Gay Gardens to see Animal Hospital et all.

Aaaand I picked up a copy of Dead Machines Plays Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. FUCK YEAH. Should have a review of that (plus all the backstock of vinyl I got piling up) once I get my stylus in the mail.

Steven Norton at Weirdo Records

More photos on Flickr.

How serendipitous! I was supposed to be to work yesterday at 11 AM but showed up at 4 PM instead. Whoops. But hey, night off! Right? I still had time to catch Steve Norton's show at Weirdo Records. Which, if you've never been, is a TINY place. Like, the size of a large walk-in closet. And that's not counting all the CD racks and such. Luckily, including Norton, me, and two employees, there were only 6 people. So not exactly cramped but not too roomy either. But these are the best kinda shows.

So Steve's forte is reed instruments along with some strange percussion and bird call things. He started with some tin can rattling, shaking everything between two drumsticks like he had Parkinson's and was trying to use chopsticks to eat his food. Then he moved onto the saxophones (alto and soprano) which made me feel like I had teleported into some strange future where classic instruments could be played backwards. I don't know what he did but he is able to make the sax sound like it's being slowly rewound on a cassette tape. So bizarre.

In between each reed instrument, he would do some haphazard percussion, such as when he emptied a box of tiny wood panels and tin can lids on the floor, throwing them around, organizing and reorganizing over and over again, like he had OCD. But every little sound mattered, including dragging the things back that went flying across the floor, scraping them along the wood floor, or putting the instruments down on their stands. Everything had this kind of premeditated feeling while still being completely improvised as if he had an insanely fast brain that would see something and know exactly what to do to make it sound perfect.

And he saved the best for last. The bass clarinet. Man, the things he can do with that clarinet are fucking astounding. I have never heard a reed/brass/woodwind instrument be played so differently than it was meant to, including Greg Kelley's trumpet. I'm pretty sure he was circular breathing at times. And he could make it sound like a didgeridoo without repositioning his fingers. It was all in his throat and it was the most amazing thing ever. Sometimes it didn't even sound like a clarinet, sometimes it just sounded like some tight snare drums. Other times it sounded like it had a filter of static. I have no idea how he did any of those things but trust me this guy is totally worth seeing live.