Video: Kyle Bobby Dunn at First Presbyterian Church (Brooklyn)

Kyle Bobby Dunn playing live in a church with a string & brass ensemble 2 weeks ago. God fucking dammit why didn't we all go to this? Also, wait until the end... wtf is that all about?

Kyle Bobby Dunn - Rural Route No. 2 (Standard Form, 2010)

Kyle Bobby Dunn - Dissonant Distances


Standard Form put out a limited edition 3" CD-R from the new master of minimal drone, Kyle Bobby Dunn. Only two songs, "Dissonant Distances" & "Senium III," but they're both around the 10 minute mark and are as gorgeous as can be. Of course "Dissonant Distances" has its moments of, well, dissonance, using a strange sort of muted industrial ambience. It's a bit more textured than his previous stuff, a little more static & crackle as opposed to smothered strings. Not what I was expecting and in a very awesome way.

The second track is the slow moving Stars Of The Lid style drone you've come to know & love. Soft, delicate, and smooth, anything but ambient background sounds. The layers of beauty suck you in & hypnotize you. Lovely tones emanating off the golden lakes in the clouds. Seriously special stuff.

I almost hope Dunn isn't going the route of Aidan Baker, putting out 30 releases every year because honestly, I can't do that with another artist who's this good. It's bound to either empty my wallet or put me in a deep funk knowing I can't have it all. Most likely the former.

Kyle Bobby Dunn - A Young Person's Guide To... (Low Point, 2010)

Kyle Bobby Dunn - Small Show Of Hands


I know there were probably, like, hundreds of you who creamed your pants over that supreme original art print/album The Intimate Rituals Of Kyle Bobby Dunn on Songs From Under The Floorboards. And you had every right to because it was fucking gorgeous. Well, Mr. Dunn has another release with more than twice as much music on it.

A Young Person's Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn is a double disc of old(ish) material. The first disc is basically last year's digital release Fervency and the second contains songs culled from the same time period when the Fervency recordings were made. So all of these tracks were physical release virgins until now.

Have you ever been walking down the street and it was raining so hard that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face? And the clouds were so thick that not even a single beam of light could penetrate. And your entire body was comprised of water, soaked, quite literally, to the bone and you were bordering on hypothermia. Me neither. But you can imagine it, right? Imagine how fucking pissed off at the entire world you would be.

Then imagine you take another step and it's all gone. The clouds are gone. The rain is gone. The sky is blue and the sun's rays are warming your instantly dry body. Your shoes aren't squishing out water and you lay down on the dry grass basking like a lizard. You would be the happiest motherfucker alive.

That feeling of absolute luxury bathing in the sun when seconds prior you were about to kill baby unicorns is how I feel when listening to A Young Person's Guide To... The lush, majestic tones that float out of my speakers turn me to mush.

The way Dunn can digitally manipulate classical instruments is incredible. It puts him in the same class as Stars Of The Lid and William Basinski, though he imitates neither. Dunn may only have a handful of releases so far but this dude is going to go down in history as one of the masters of minimal 21st century drone. Grab as much of it now as you possibly can.

Kyle Bobby Dunn - The Intimate Rituals Of... (Songs From Under The Floorboards, 2009)

More images on Flickr. Click here to see full artwork.
Kyle Bobby Dunn - Bracebridge


How I had never heard of Kyle Bobby Dunn before I saw him at the Intransitive Recordings showcase on New Years Eve is beyond me. The guy fuckin blew my mind. Obviously, I went to the merch table to buy something, anything, that had his name on it. Holy fuck. I wasn't expecting this.

The Intimate Rituals Of Kyle Bobby Dunn is a piece of art. Literally. It's limited to 100 hand numbered copies, and every one consists of an abstract pen & ink drawing with a CD affixed to the back of it. And each one is drawn by hand (by Ashley Payne), entirely original, no duplicates or prints. No two are the same. You spend $20 and get an original piece of art along with Kyle Bobby Dunn's new release. Fucking WOW.

So the packaging is easily the most amazing packaging on anything I've ever owned but that's just the physical aspect of it. The music on Rituals is astounding. Dunn's weapon of choice is his laptop and he uses it to craft the most minimal twinkling engine whir wind drone ever. Listening to his music is like studying a canvas purposefully left blank. The canvas is beautiful and the longer you stare at it, the more beautiful it becomes. All of the tiny fibers weaving in and out, the seemingly solid color that shifts ever so slightly from thread to thread, these are the foundations that people use to create great art, but Dunn makes them the art itself.

This is some of the most nuanced and delicate drone I've ever heard. Listening to Rituals idly, or only giving it one of your ears is a severe mistake. It takes little to no effort to get immense joy out of this, just make sure it has your complete attention or you'll be doing both yourself and Dunn a great disservice.

The Intimate Rituals Of Kyle Bobby Dunn is the very first release from Songs From Under The Floorboards, a sub-division of Intransitive Recordings. Looks like it'll be a bit difficult to get ahold of, seeing how the label doesn't really have a proper web presence at the moment, but you could shoot Kyle an e-mail and he might be able to hook you up. And trust me, you want to get hooked up.

P.S. Watch out for the gator feedback attack at the end. He's pretty nasty.

Heathen Shame, Jessica Rylan, Oneohtrix Point Never, Kyle Bobby Dunn, Skeletons Out at The Hynes Convention Center

Intransitive Recordings once again put on the coolest New Years Eve event in Boston. I promise nothing you did last night was as fun as this show. Plus, they were selling the debut release from the new Intransitive offshoot, Songs From Under The Floorboards, which will be issuing limited edition hand made art CD-Rs and tapes and such. The first one is Kyle Bobby Dunn's The Intimate Rituals Of... and it's absolutely gorgeous. Anyway, here are some photos I shot last night. There are tons more on Flickr.

Skeletons Out

Kyle Bobby Dunn

Oneohtrix Point Never

Jessica Rylan

Jessica Rylan

Heathen Shame

Heathen Shame

Heathen Shame