Kevin Drumm

[heretogo]

Such an amazing artist! My collection is far from complete when it comes to his stuff, but almost everything I've heard has been good or very good. I just got the rerelease of his debut on Perdition Plastics and man - it's amazingly great! Guitar improv done totally right, proper tension throughout the disc and every possible sound from electric guitar explored and utilized. Exemplary use of dynamics also, not in a predictable way but keeping the listener on his/her toes at all times. The duo disc with Wehowsky on Selektion is another old favorite. I haven't seen much appreciation shown for this, yet it's a definite masterpiece. In fact, I like all the different sides to his game. The guitar stuff is great, so is the noise mayhem and ditto for the recent drones on Hospital. The one release I've been disappointed with was the collab with Prurient (All Are Guests In The House Of The Lord ), very uninteresting to my ears.

How is the split-LP on Fringes, with Bhob Rainey? I've been tempted by this.

[ConcreteMascara]

Actually just sold my copy of the double cassette on Hospital, Malaise. Very disappointed with that one. The first track was nice, but everything else felt very disjointed. And considering the price, definitely not worth it in my book.

[Henrik III]

I like also most sides of his work. RLW collab is indeed a forgotten jewel, "Second" is another good one. Apparently there's a Drumm boxset coming on Pica (some info here), really looking forward on that. My least favorite Drumm is probably the Erstwhile disc with Axel Dörner.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I have heard many good things about this, but never really gotten into it myself. First of all, it was about the usual dislike of "artists with his own name" thing. Later it was just failing to see what makes it special. I have kept the material in case I'd get into it later, so don't have to regret then, hah..

[mystikum]

Out of the ones I have I really enjoy Impish Tyrant, but the imperial horizons/imperial distortion and most of the drony stuff is pretty boring

[heretogo]

Yeah, Impish Tyrant is very nice. I'm just listening to the cd reissue of this (got it along with the debut reissue from Drumm for $5 / cd, cheap!). An "in-the-red" recording, especially the beginning is full-on assault on ears. A lot of variety in the sounds, there's digital destruction but also quite a bit of guitar in there (sounds like it, anyway). I usually don't like it when noise has "riffs" in it but here there are some pretty cool ones... The intensity decreases towards the end but it doesn't get boring at any point. 30 min length is perfect for this kind of stuff. Very harsh but not in the standard way.
This is released on Dagda which I guess is Drumm's own label. No other releases yet, as far as I can see.

[mystikum]

yeah, I have the re-issue as well.  If I knew what to expect from each album, I would definitely invest more.  I was just really disappointed in the drone stuff, maybe someone can explain the draw of this type of thing?   

[ConcreteMascara]

Two reasons I see to like his drone stuff.
1. Drugs - take lots of downers or trippy drugs and let your brain melt
2. don't take lots of drugs, lie down and let your brain melt.

The sound slowly envelopes you on headphones and brings about a sort of strange tranquility. at least for me.

[Mattias G]

The best Kevin Drumm recording i have heard is the "Purge" tape on iDEAL Recordings,  harsh and varied stuff. Amazing!
I think it will come out as a CD sooner or later on iDEAL. Check it out!

[heretogo]

The sound slowly envelopes you on headphones and brings about a sort of strange tranquility. at least for me.

I guess long-format drones are something that one is into - or not. Drumm's variety is less mathematical and rigorous than, say, Niblock's or Conrad's - it's more about emotion and atmosphere than precise beat frequencies and overtones. Something to put on and let your mind be swept away with. And yeah, I guess you can also turn on, tune in and drop out with it, although I haven't really used them for that purpose (yet). The quality that his drones share with the classic minimalist stuff is that once you listen more carefully there's all sorts of stuff happening between/in the details. And that's exactly what is missing in most of the modern (guitar and otherwise) drones coming from the younger generation of noiseheads.
But for me drones don't really work with headphones. They need the room acoustics to interact with. Drumm's discs are maybe not as demanding in this respect as Niblock's but I still prefer to hear them on a good quality speaker system.

[Henrik III]

Seems like the box is out now: http://www.lassemarhaug.no/picadisk/pica019.html

[apfEID]

I was slow to pay attention to the hype but over the past 3-4 years have become a huge fan and really regret not picking up Sheer Hellish Misasma when it first came out.

He shared the first disc of the box set as a single track earlier this year, Light's Out.
http://www.mediafire.com/?fyyjnhynknz

Here's a huge thread about him over on an electroacoustic improv board, 20 pages dating back to 2004 and continually updated til today:
http://ihatemusic.noquam.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=143

[Zeno Marx]

Anyone care to comment on all the drone releases in the past couple of years?  Recommendations?  I could (attempt to) listen to them on his bandcamp, but I thought this might be quicker and straight to the best.  Well There You Go! is a good one.  Another Set Of Days Now Over has some nice field recording work blended with the sounds of what I associate with a humming building.  For those disinterested in his drones, they might like Blocking.  It's still on the calmer side, but it is heavy and quasi-noisy.

[holy ghost]

I picked up the Inexplicable Hours 3xLP from this year (I believe) and it's pretty great, reminiscent or Tannenbaum. I haven't been keeping up with his releases as much as I was 5 years ago however.

[urall]

I only have a couple of his releases, but i think Imperial Distortion is a good one to check out.