Thursday, March 27, 2014

The "Other" Kevin Drumm

Quiet Noise should be, and now according to this website is, just the introduction piece to Kevin Drumm.
Much has been written and said about this titan of Noise music, from his early beginnings to the current day.  Prolific releasing, a huge Noise release that has been rated as one of the top of all time, and constant experimental music releasings with other musicians have strengthened his influence and his fan base.

His beginning was part of this whole "quiet noise" idea, the self titled Kevin Drumm came out and was recognized for what it wasn't was, vs for what it was.  What is wasn't:  loud, abrasive, ear-torturing noise.  rather it was quiet, droning, and static-y with jolts of sounds and long periods of questionable sound soaring everywhere.

He followed it with Second, Comedy, and several pairings with musicians like Taki Sugimoto, Martin Tetreault, Ralf Wehosky, Peter Rehberg, and Brent Gutzeit.  The majority of time he still seemed to be focusing on the quiet, the sickness that was involved in the anticipation for music, the anticipation of the onslaught of sound.  He turned a very sharp corner when he released Sheer Hellish Miasma in 2002.

I highly recommend the written review on Pitchfork:  http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/2465-sheer-hellish-miasma/?utm_campaign=search&utm_medium=site&utm_source=search-ac

This may just be one of the most intense, varied, crushing releases of all time.  The strength of the noise is pure, the motive is destruction, and it is more than satisfied.  What I find most fascinating about this release is that is far more structured, measured, and thought out than pretty much any other noise music I have heard.  The release works terrifically as a 4-6 song release (in the three different releases of this album, the number of tracks has varied).
 It also, however, works great as just individual tracks.  The tracks all have different "themes".  Track one, (going off of the 5 song, second release of the CD) is "Impotent Hummer"  presents a repeating drone sort of vibration sound with a crisscross of noise overlapping it, constantly changing and giving the drone either emphasis or drawing attention away from the drone.
"Turning Point" is a short, sweet number, a jumpy little bug of a song that is slowly overshadowed by a noise screech.  "Hitting the Pavement" and "The Inferno" noise it up, as long beatings of noise sink further and further into your skull.  A barely recognizable trumpet is introduced into the noise during Inferno and it somehow fits in perfectly with the rest of the noise.  (for more interesting noise music with trumpets, check out the Kevin Drumm release with Axel Dorner, or Fennesz's release with Max Nagl)
he ends things perfectly with "Cloudy" a meditative, calm-after-the-storm type track that is just the right length, as a drone at this point would feel out of place.

Kevin Drumm started to have more releases, and a barrage of noise heavy experiments.  In highlight, the beautiful Imperial Distortion explored both heavy and softer tones, while the deluxe 5 CD Necro Acoustic explored older, less available material of his.  He started to self release titles in 2010, and now a lot of his hard to find material is on his bandcamp website, http://kevindrumm.bandcamp.com/

Enjoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZqoALeiJ24