Kevin Drumm's Bandcamp Discography Listening Project
(it's important that you read these reviews in chronological order)
Below is a file directory in chronological review order:
Kevin Drumm's Bandcamp Discography Listening Project
MY ALBUM RANKING:
REALLY good
Imperial Distortion
Purge
Horror Of Birth
Earrach
The Back Room
Imperial Horizon
More Answers
Shut In-etc
60 Minute Relief
CROWDED
Impish Tyrant
The Obstacles Of Romantic Exaggeration
TANNENBAUM
Mithering The Skiving Gorm
REDUNDANT PHASE
EQUINOX
The Old Hag
Pretty good
The Whole House
Primate
Land Of Lurches
The Sea Wins
Crooked Abode
The Kitchen
1983
Split With Pita
BOLERO MUTER
REVERSE OSMOSIS
Trouble
Moving
Electronic Harassment 6
Wrong Intersection
Phantom jerk
Necro Acoustic 2-Malaise
Front Room
Mediocre
The Damned Sort
I HAVE A COMPUTER
MERCY CUTS I
2014 Everything's Going along as Usual and Then All Shit Breaks Loose.
HUMID WEATHER
Necro Acoustic 3 - Decrepit
Necro Acoustic 1 - Lights Out
Second
Twinkle Toes
Live 1995(Somewhere in Chicago)
INTERFERENCE
JANUARY
Quiet Nights
Dying Air
Ghybbrish
Necro Acoustic 5- Organ
09082001 gtr/synth 'solo'
Kinda bad
Electronic Harassment 1
Necro Acoustic 4-No Edit
Alku Tape
Electronic Harassment 4-5
Don't Ask
Total Run Time: 30:04
1. Impish Tyrant 1 - 4:28
2. Impish Tyrant 2 - 4:50
3. Impish Tyrant 3 - 20:46
Today, I start what will probably be the hardest listening project I do for a while. Stretching over 150 albums and over 100 hours, Kevin Drumm's bandcamp is MASSIVE. And being a fan of him, I thought it would be a fun idea to do this. Unlike other listening projects though, I will not devote my sole attention to this, I can't listen to pretty much exclusively drone music for two months, sorry. I'll be doing this in the background of other listening projects, and while doing homework, it seems fun. Without further adeu, let's get into it. Jesus, this is a loud one, was not expecting that given the sheer amount of drone work Kevin has built up over the years, I forgot he could get this fucking harsh. Jesus, this might actually be better than Sheer Hellish Miasma... Kevin has produced some of the most beautiful sounds of all time along with some of the most harsh and that is an insane feat. But yeah, that was a damn solid release, I have a feeling these albums will be quite the challenge to actually rank, I have no clue what the categories are even going to be since I don't actually know if Kevin Drumm has any terrible albums (well, I mean there is The Illusion Of Having Plans, but we'll get to that when we get to that.)
Total Run Time: 100:56
1. Cthulhu is Lazy - 53:08
2. Move Your Head A - 27:20
3. Move Your Head B - 5:48
4. Move Your Head C - 14:40
The first track is 50 damn minutes of tinnitus. Each of the following tracks are different tones of tinnitus for their respective lengths. Yeah, funny how RIGHT before this I was saying how Kevin Drumm never actually made anything bad, but this is drone music that physically hurts for an EXCESSIVELY long time (seriously, this is almost 2 hours of tinnitus, it's fucking insane how I managed to get through it). Like, of course there's artistic value in it, but that doesn't change that it's nearly unlistenable. I can just somehow make it through fucking anything after sitting through RINGEX PLASTER and doing a 7 and a half hour long SONG in one sitting. Maybe I will separate these into categories...
Total Run Time: 27:50
1. EH6 - 27:50
Still the tinnitus, but VASTLY more interesting due to both variaton and the hilariously broken mixer. Turned it from awful into awesome. It was a fun experience.
Total Run Time: 47:00
1. Wrong Intersection - 47:00
Changes from very quiet drone music to odd noises to field recordings over drones. Quite the interesting release content-wise but also doesn't have much especial substance. Despite being more objectively interesting than some of his other material, most of this didn't resonate with me very much at all. Seems more like a bit of trivia in his discography than being worth much.
Total Run Time: 93:44
1. Krapula - 10:13
2. Goddamnerung - 15:04
3. Embrace the befuddlement - 22:20
4. Incus Fear 1 - 10:00
5. Incus Fear 2 - 5:18
6. Incus Fear 3 - 9:32
7. Incus Fear 4 - 21:17
Another EXTREMELY noisy release. Transitioning in between battering washes of noise, to stagnant tones and dim static, Ghybbrish shifts from vastly entertaining to somewhat of a field recording, contributing to an overall excitement, but minimally losing the moments a bit. While the beginning explodes with variation, each track becomes more muted and unchanging until the last four tracks sit on largely unchanging drones culminating in the ultimate 21 minute closing slog. One that promises quite a bit at first and sadly refuses to deliver throughout.
Total Run Time: 22:35
1. Front Room A - 9:30
2. Front Room B - 13:05
An extremely quiet bout of minimal tones, glitches, and guitar plucks. Selected moments from a collaboration with Taku Sugimoto. Front Room B is significantly more nuanced, progressive, and active than the sparse and random Front Room A, although the last few minutes drone extremely quietly seeming to be silent. Relatively in the mediocre middle of Kevin's work.
Total Run Time: 28:09
1. Electronic Harassment A - 14:49
2. Electronic Harassment B - 13:20
Endulging in long stretches of unvarying, harsh, and high-pitched tones, the Electronic Harassment series certainly sets out to harm the ears. This particular one is relatively more entertaining due to a particularly great resonant bass prevalent in the first half of the second track, but that was about all that was notable about this one. Some portions were similar to the unchanging portions of Ghybbrish.
Total Run Time: 26:48
1. True Warriors Endure The Idleness - 12:43
2. Guillotine Licker/Present Tense Returning/Smelling In Stereo - 14:05
Now THIS is what I fully expected going into Kevin's discography. REALLY pleasant drones that build up into extremely bass-heavy noise sections, it's absolutely perfect.
Total Run Time: 10:01
1. I Like The Idea of A Power Trio Where... - 3:18
2. 2 (Built In Mic) - 1:32
3. I'll Never Go To Mass Again - 5:11
Really crazy minimal noise thing, with just small, tinny glitches here and there rather than a constant stream on the first two tracks. The last track seems to be some slow-motion drone thing with more slow-motion clangs on top. Extremely interesting, but a bit short.
Live 1995(Somewhere in Chicago)
Total Run Time: 24:24
1. Your Guitar Is Prepared...But You Aren't!
Live noise that seems more or less poorly recorded. A bit of a generic set, nothing really special going on, neither especially good nor bad.
Total Run Time: 39:30
1. Don't Ask - 39:30
Extremely short (like we're talking fractions of a second here) bursts of prepared guitar noise interspersed between extensive periods of silence. A bit of a boring release, it gets a bit tiring and goes on for a while considering its length.
Total Run Time: 34:36
1. Alku Side A - 19:56
2. Alku Side B - 14:40
Tinny, ear-grating noises that don't seem to have much merrit due to their franticness and their tinniness, seeming quite unprepared due to a large amount of decision-changing sweeps. The volume rapidly changes, feeling more like a mistake rather than a decision and the whole thing gives a headache rather than being enjoyable. The whole thing is noise entirely in the high frequencies and you get used to one volume and then suddenly it gets turned up JUST past comfortable hearing range.
Total Run Time: 47:43
1. Cynicism is the stuff laugh riots are made of - 23:47
2. All morning and half the afternoon - 1:55
3. We both liked the view - 22:01
Starts with an EXTREMELY high pitch (like so high that it just sounds like a click and you're not sure if you're actually hearing it or if it's just silence). Then, some quiet clicking occurs, fading slowly into complete silence. Then we get some decently variant clicks that are sometimes bass heavy and actually produce quite interesting sounds. We get progressively sent into an extremely interesting noise and rumbling section, then we're subject to bass that's the low-frequency equivalent of the high frequency from the beginning, where you can feel it more than you can hear it. Some more electronic and distorted rumble-like noises. After a while, a quiet, but very calming drone kicks in. Some quiet noises in the left ear kick in, then more super calming drones that get louder, and now a harsh drone that slowly builds up and then the first track abruptly ends perfectly. The second half of that track was amazing, but the first half was kind of terrible, certainly made my headache from the previous release worse. Second track is as expected more of an interlude. Some quiet rumbles akin to some of the more random background noises in the first track, nothing particular of value here. In track three, odd beeping transitions into a beautiful drone that encompasses the length of the track and goes on an odyssey of sorts, quite the Kevin Drumm treatment on this one.
Total Run Time: 112:49
1. Dying Air A - 27:28
2. Dying Air B - 25:34
3. Dying Air - 28:36
4. Dying Air - 31:11
Largely minimal, entirely acoustic creaks from odd things. Seems to be an exercise in sounds from non-instruments, and in that it achieves some stellar sounds, seriously a lot of this was extremely impressive. However, it's not very interesting. Lasting almost two hours, the slow creaks with large gaps of silence in between get tiring.
Total Run Time: 145:11
1. Live(Static Generator) - 40:01
2. The Onset of Sleep - 57:50
3. Burn In Hell For A Bit - 47:20
Starts off with some high-range harsh static that eventually quickly fades out. Some low rumbes. Then more, but a little different high-range harsh static. The track cycles through various harsh statics and tones that suddenly change into one-another. The second track consists of a low rumble that I thought was actually silence until I paused it. A significant chunk of the way through, a higher pitch finally starts and we get some decent cascading drones from various lengths of static. Then, what sounds like silence for a while, then that crescendos into more intense static cycles, except this time (if the last static sounded like a bathroom sink) these statics sound like a vacuum cleaner. Then it very suddenly stops, and another low rumble slowly fades in, followed by some more harsh statics later. Kind of interesting, but the statics get boring (or even grating) fast and stay unchanging for needlessly long periods of time. The third track is by far the best one, although the entire first half is unchanging static. The second half is some super interesting distroted sounds though, you can hear crazy distorted melodies and screaming, it was insane, it was perfect! I wish the rest of it was like this, that just bumped up the album a category.
Total Run Time: 86:49
1. Earrach A - 41:32
2. Earrach B - 25:47
3. Earrach C - 19:30
In the past couple weeks I finally resolved the whole issue of the CRAZY CDr never arriving and finally recieved it with my order of Motif (along with the surprise of the Adam Golebiewski collaboration, excited to listen to that once the catalog calls for it). I had heard the first half of this release before due to it being inlcuded within the Elapsed Time box set. That track is absolutely stunning, squelchy cricket-like noise cascades in and out while occasional euphoric melodies swell in enveloping the ears and resonating. By the end, it's entirely those melodies and it's perfect. Second track starts with a new sort of squelching, but higher-pitched noise, manages to be super interesting. Then these crazed, super ominous, glitchy drones come in. Those drones quickly cease and the rest of the track is fairly interesting forms of squelching. Ends weirdly with manipulated static for about a minute. Recommended, but not as good as the first track, the drone section is the best part. Earrach C starts with some ultra-quiet tapping then BAM it surprises you with an influx of crazy harsh noise. And that's when the track REALLY kicks in. We get all these sudden sections of crazy noise, everything's totally unexpected. The track slowly progresses into a complete Brise-Glace-esque drone, one that also sounds absolutely perfect. This track might be the best out of the whole thing, but the first track is also pretty damn good. The last two minutes are quite the surprise.
Total Run Time: 34:40
1. The Old Hag - 34:40
The definition of abrasive. Extremely loud, knocks you off your socks the moment you press play, harsh on the level of Merzbow, but not to an unlistenable degree (in the way that it's not so high-pitched it's annoying). This noise is perfect and extremely impressive going in. Lasts a little long with no change though. But amazing release.
Total Run Time: 32:49
1. Primate A - 14:20
2. Primate 2 - 18:29
First track is completely batshit harsh noise, gets louder than you think. It does manage to get somewhat boring after a while though, the tones aren't especially resonant. It's awesome, but it's nothing particularly special. The second track was a harsh, but really nice buzz, I liked it better than the first track. Solid album, not that special, but still really solid.
Total Run Time: 48:00
1. 1983 B - 7:20
2. 1983 A - 16:00
3. 1983 C - 24:40
From the cover art, I expected this release to be entirely abrasive. Surprisingly, it's quite the opposite. The first track is entirely nearly silent actually, with just barely-audible drones. Each consecutive track is slightly louder than the previous, and the drones in each track are quite well done, reminds me of a more suspenseful and less repetitive version of Basinski's Watermusic.
Total Run Time: 34:40
1. Shut In extra 1 - 18:44
2. Shut In extra 2 - 15:56
This is actually one I've heard a couple times before, since I've had it downloaded for a while cause I have the Elapsed Time box set this was featured on. Absolutely amazing drone. Not that much to say about it since the drone is a bit unchanging, but it never gets boring. It's thhe perfect drone, and small subtleties vary throughout each track, changing the volume and vibrato of the drone which is already perfect, but these interesting and subtle changes elevate it so much. Truly one of Drumm's best pieces, its place on Elapsed Time is very well-deserved. Very similar to parts of Tannenbaum.
Total Run Time: 56:12
1. Moving part 1 - 14:02
2. Moving part 2 - 14:04
3. Moving part 3 - 14:25
4. Moving part 4 - 13:41
Somewhat interesting, but didn't do that much for me. High-ish pitch drones that buzz in and out, but nothing's especially resonant. Sort of flew by while I was studying.
The Obstacles Of Romantic Exaggeration
Total Run Time: 88:49
1. Cupcake focused militants - 2:14
2. Stochastic Sophistication - 5:58
3. Humidity Can Suck It - 3:02
4. Violent Daydreams - 11:53
5. Shortwave Intermission - 5:02
6. A Hairdresser Who Suddenly Went Mad and Decapitated A Duke - 6:56
7. A Therapists Lazy Nightmare - 3:25
8. Brutal Nothing - 1:00
9. This Sounded Like A Bad Fennesz Rip So I Bagged It... Until Now - 4:40
10. Transgressive Yawns - 1:27
11. Farewell Reprobates - 4:20
12. Hang The Hustlers - 6:00
13. Hypnogogic Jerk - 0:15
14. Fauxnakis - 0:34
15. Gutsynth 2000 Version 1 - 10:00
16. Nanoplankton - 7:23
17. Gutsynth 2000 Version 3 - 14:40
A weird assortment of tracks. First few tracks don't seem to serve much of a purpose, then Violent Daydreams kicks in being one of Kevin Drumm's best ever tracks with Oval-esque melodies looping around guitar plucks and an arrangement of drones and odd noises cascading in and out. Absolutely brilliant, I think this song might be my favorite Kevin Drumm track. Track 6 is also brilliant, but with some weird gross sounds that come in randomly. Track 7 manages to sound EXACTLY like The Caretaker, and it's brilliant. Brutal Nothing is literally a minute of silence (as expected). Track 9's title is accurate, except I quite liked it. Track 10 was nice. Track 11 felt largely unnecessary. Track 12 is extremely weird coming from Kevin Drumm, resembles noise rock more than anything else. We then have a couple REALLY cool, but really short noise tracks. Track 15's interesting, but fairly standard. Track 16 was quite boring until holy fuck, that bass kicked in. Last track is fine but not notable.
Total Run Time: 59:05
1. 60 Minute Relief - 59:05
Absolute insanity, one of the harshest albums I know of. Starting with about 10 minutes of beautiful overdriven drones that suddenly and abruptly transition into the loud, glitchy, insanely detailed mess of Relief. This is if a Gustav Klimt painting were a song. After an immense drone of harsh glitches and tweaks, the song ends with a brief moment of silence, followed by a final, equally brief (we're talking like fraction of a second) explosion. Extremely good. About the only thing wrong with it is the beginning drones have a really weird pattern of unexpectedly cutting out, it almost seems unintentional.
Total Run Time: 30:57
1. Spraying The Weeds - 5:55
2. Blistering Statick - 4:38
3. Needleprick - 2:06
4. Idle Worship - 18:18
First track is extremely interesting, the harsh overtones combine with the bass to create a tense, but somehow calming atmosphere. It ends quite abruptly though. Pretty much same exact deal with the second track, although it was considerably more tense. Third track is entirely silent. The last track, while entertaining at first, slowly becomes annoying and almost as headache-enducing as the Electronic Harassment series. First two tracks great, last two not so good.
Total Run Time: 60:13
1. Malaise 1 - 4:16
2. Malaise 2 - 9:22
3. Malaise 3 - 3:20
4. Malaise 4 - 2:10
5. Malaise 5 - 1:47
6. Malaise 6 - 1:36
7. Malaise 7 - 2:54
8. Malaise 8 - 2:20
9. Malaise 9 - 14:59
10. Malaise 9 - 6:44
11. Malaise 10 - 6:44
12. Malaise 11 - 4:01
Extremely noisy release with multiple tracks that sound like cuts from 60 Minute Relief. Track 4 is especially loud and headache-enducing. An odd selection of extremely noisy tracks that don't really blend into each other or sound like the same universe. Sort of like a less poignant Obstacles of Romantic Exaggeration. Track 9 is an absolutely perfect drone. Mr. Drumm accidentally uploaded track 10 (what's supposed to be "Malaise 10") twice under both the name "Malaise 9" and "Malaise 10". I mean, I guess I have to listen to both.
Total Run Time: 67:42
1. Stomach Acid - 3:02
2. Blistering Static - 7:00
3. Band Pass - 5:12
4. Take The Focus Off - 2:52
5. Stale Content - 2:52
6. Bustelo - 1:15
7. Trash - 2:54
8. dilemma 1 - 3:44
9. dilemma 2 - 9:12
10. older shit 1 - 3:10
11. older shit 2 - 2:44
12. Totemic Saturation - 13:31
13. The Blurry Stupor - 10:14
Pretty good overall, but nothing that notable here. This just kinda seems like an album of filler tracks, everything goes by pretty fast and you don't remember it much afterwards. Very noisy.
Total Run Time: 58:10
1. No Edit 1 - 23:33
2. No Edit 2 - 34:37
Pretty quiet for the most part, a lot of the noises don't really have any merit and are actually quite boring. Most of the first track is in the right ear for some reason.
Total Run Time: 54:54
1. Organ - 54:54
Had higher hopes this would be a quite interesting drone piece. It barely changes with a loop of a few seconds going back and forth between the same hums that never change. The only changing thing here is the length between switches, but only enough for it to be noticed if you're REALLY paying attention. Was a nice drone, but got boring after the first couple minutes. Then it went on for 20 more. Around 25 minutes in, things actually start changing a bit (or maybe they did earlier and I never noticed) and now they're back to normal. Overall, changes are extremely subtle and don't contribute much and end up looping back to normal so they didn't really mean anything, and goes on WAY too long. But I have to be honest, it's quite a nice sound, and after a REALLY long time, it starts to get good again for whatever reason.
Total Run Time: 58:21
1. Purge - 58:21
This one's absolutely fucking insane. Beginning with some crazy sounds almost like raw data (but they're not, they don't have that distinctive sound) transitioning into a crazy interesting harsh noise wall for a while, then around 20 minutes in we get this onlslaught of absolutely insane sounds one after another. At 22 minutes everything cuts out and we get this huge distorted metallic bangs and at 23 minutes in, some of the most fucking alien, Autehcre, crazy sounds I've ever heard just come out of nowhere and grind into the ears at the absolutely PERFECT rate (KD is good at that). One of the most harsh things ever (a lot of Kevin Drumm's albums I'd make the argument that they ABSOLUTELY are more harsh than Merzbow's harshest). What also makes this so much better than Merzbow is Kevin Drumm's versatility. This thing changes to straight up drone in the second half, and it's absolutely perfect and just as interesting as the insanely harsh first half. Jesus, this might be the best thing so far, this is one of the best harsh noise albums I've EVER heard. Oh and that ending is SO weird and out of place that it actually circles in on itself and becomes YET ANOTHER aspect of this thing's perfection.
Total Run Time: 40:21
1. Extracted - 40:21
For a while, quite a bit like No Edit, managed to be especially uninteresting and in the background. At about 20 minutes in though, these noises become a lot more significant and drawn-out. Ends extremely abruptly and hilariously. The last segment isn't as interesting as the middle.
Total Run Time: 34:54
1. Wider Distance - 10:58
2. Waterbed Music Part 1 - 15:56
3. Slanted Floors - 8:00
Another one I had previously listened to due to its inclusion on the fantastic Elapsed Time box set. The first track is a brilliant drone that progressively gets more intense and resonant. Absolutely masterfully done, but it's pretty much the same story with a different drone for the rest of the two tracks. The second track does shift through a few different tones though, the last couple minutes of it being especially interesting, dissonant, and resonant. This is a perfect drone album, but not much more than that.
Total Run Time: 24:05
1. Albatross Version A - 14:32
2. Albatross Version B - 9:33
First track opens with a sound I never expected to come out of Kevin Drumm - Complete chaotic percussion! But it's also quite calming, while being conceptually dense, it's calm sounds like frogs and bamboo chimes that cascade and bounce into each other and fill the air rather than being a bombardment of drums. This later fades into electronic drones that argue with each other and by the end sound completely like glitch-processed drones and the percussive sounds are gone. The second track essentially does the reverse of that; Very processed drones (in the vein of spectrogram-generated sounds [might want to look into that]) fade into the boucing frog/bird percussion, transitioning from extremely processed, to somehow extremely natural. This album is one of the most similar to a lot of Merzbow's works, combining animal sounds with noise.
Total Run Time: 42:22
1. Phantom Jerk 1 - 23:10
2. Phantom Jerk 2 - 5:56
3. Phantom Jerk 2 - 13:16
An extremely quiet release, but once paid attention to, reveals itself to be quite the nice bit of ambient melody. The last track though doesn't change its drone much and just goes on a little long, would've been fine with just the first two as the last doesn't add much.
Total Run Time: 52:48
1. quiet nights 1 - 30:04
2. Quiet Nights 2 - 22:44
Sort of like another version of Phantom jerk, makes sense given the name. Less interesting than the first phantom jerk, but more interesting than the last.
Total Run Time: 27:11
1. REPETITIVE ALGAE - 14:00
2. REDIKI - 13:11
First track has some real interesting noises on top of crazy drones. Almost like a much less melodic version of Earrach. Second track is a lot more metallic and intense. At about 9 minutes in, the drones start to get REALLY intense, and then we have this super harsh, super awesome, Sheer Hellish Miasma type crazy distorted drone that (and I have a feeling I'll be repeating this phrase a lot) grinds into the ears in the absolute most perfect way possible. Ends perfectly weirdly too. Fantastic listen.
Total Run Time: 43:58
1. Accord A - 12:41
2. Accord B - 27:03
3. C - 4:14
Really nice drones, a different, but stagnant one in each track. The first track was by far the least interesting though. The second track was really nice and reminded me of a more harsh Selva Oscura. The last track was also really nice and warm, but it ended weirdly abruptly. Good listen.
Total Run Time: 37:04
1. Humid Weather - 20:06
2. Heat Stress - 16:58
Conceptually a super interesting release, but doesn't manage to do that much for me. Its sounds vary and change constantly, and they're cool sounds don't get me wrong, but they don't seem to have much behind them. It all seems like a set of ideas that didn't come into full fruition. There are parts that go on way too long also.
Total Run Time: 30:31
1. Crooked Abode - 30:31
This one was also on the Elapsed Time box set! A solid release, has a lot of drone segments that change like movements. Over 30 minutes, quite a few times the drone fades to silence and a new one comes in. They're all very quality drones too though. So nice release that's pretty interesting because it tries to be.
2014 Everything's Going along as Usual and Then All Shit Breaks Loose.
Total Run Time: 83:54
1. What Sleep Is - 8:40
2. Private Fugues - 10:20
3. The Sinking Quarrel - 9:40
4. Panoramic Carnage - 16:20
5. Awful Deep - 8:00
6. Social Interaction - 4:20
7. Lower - 22:00
8. The Forthright Fool - 4:34
So its been a couple months since I listened to Kevin Drumm. Mostly because I originally planned on this to be a sort of sub-project that I would just focus on when doing schoolwork and do the main projects outside of schoolwork. However, I haven't had schoolwork for a couple months now. Therefore, I've gotten to focus on my Tsundere Violence compilations listening project (which I'm still not finished with because that is HARD to listen to in obsession like I have with every other listening project since every thing is like multiple hours and a hundred separate songs that are hard to completely focus on and write something about each track. It sort of all becomes a jumble of noise by the end that I didn't get THAT much out of, very much unlike RINGEX PLASTER, or this, or even portions of WTC (though WTC did certainly feel like that a lot, but it was easier to make progress with WTC rather than the hours worth of content with TV). Anyways, when I actually listened to this, I didn't actually write thoughts about it, I wanted to, but I was kinda busy doing schoolwork. So its been a couple months since I ACTUALLY listened. I do remember it being quite uneventful though; A lot of quieter harsh noise walls that didn't seem to progress much and then they would fade out and come into the next track. They didn't have much merit and the release was a bit dissappointing. I'm going to skim everything again and make sure I get opinions on each track real quick. What Sleep Is is cool, but these noises don't really seem to do much or contribute to much. Same with Private Fugues, The Sinking Quarrel, Awful Deep, Social Interaction, and Lower. Panoramic Carnage and The Forthright Fool are the only ones that seem to do anything for me, Panoramic Carnage being real intense, and The Forthright Fool being quite pleasant. Private Fugues and Social Interaction are basically the same song, each with some quiter tones (these aren't HNW tracks) and klangs that seem kinda random and meaningless. Lower is interesting because it is just what the title says: REALLY low frequencies. It goes on for 22 minutes though and very quickly gets boring. Those are my final thoughts about the tracks, but keep in mind, I only skimmed through this time around, I did a more proper listen a while back and just remember feeling unmoved by these tracks. It's an okay album.
Total Run Time: 38:16
1. REVERSE OSMOSIS - 38:16
This one clips a little bit in some places. Other than that, absolutely fantastic drone piece that undergoes some very noticable changes while they still create the same overall drone.
Total Run Time: 31:15
1. The Sea Wins - 31:15
Another from the Elapsed Time box set!! Oddly enough the version on bandcamp is 17 seconds longer, but I'll be listening off the Box set. More brilliant drone music! This one isn't AS good as some of the amazing ones, but still worth a listen or two.
Total Run Time: 42:48
1. Bolero Muter(Alpha) - 42:48
Another Elapsed Time piece. I remember this one in particular being really really good. And listening to it again, yeah, this masterfully instense and dissonant harsh buzz. So yesterday I went to Six Flags and in the morning I had finished my Tsundere Violence compilations listening project. And now I am completely in the mood for one of Drumm's ambient pieces, I don't think I've ever been more excited to get back to this. In some sections of this piece, the audio actually noticably clips (even in the Elapsed Time remaster which is what I'm listening off of). Skip ahead to the 24 minute mark and you can hear a steady pulse of clipping. (I tried on the Bandcamp version as well, it's there too). The interesting thing about this release is it doesn't do a constant drone for the entire time, some things just come in when they come in, and some things fade in, but it is a very very versatile piece. Changes quite a bit. Then it just ends abruplty after a while. That silence afterwards is kinda amazing. I'll rate this one good as opposed to really good because of the clipping and some other reason I had in my mind that I forgot right as I was typing this. It might just be the clipping, that gets pretty annoying.
Total Run Time: 36:21
1. 1 - 16:11
2. 2 - 6:30
3. 3 - 13:40
Released on Dilloway's Hanson Records. Track one contains a really nice buzz that eventually turns into this noisy garble. The track is fairly uninteresting until around the 12 minute mark when it suddenly becomes extremely intense and you get these whirling tweets that sound kinda like Merzbow. I haven't ever heard KD use sounds like these before. After a while of some really entertaining sounds, it cuts off abruptly, seguing into track 2. Now, scratch what I said about track one having unique sounds, because they're nothing to the fucking sensory overload wackiness of track 2. Now THIS is insane. With track 1, I didn't really understand why this was some of Drumm's most beloved work, but track 2 makes it much much easier to see why. This release reminds me a lot of Redundant Phase in its uniqueness. Track 3 sounds like synths derived from low quality white noise, the type of stuff I would find while doing Spectrogram experiments. Sounds like a load of oscillators, puredata music maybe (although I know puredata is obviously not how this was made). Interesting for a little while, but not really that interesting overall. Track 2 is by far my favorite here. Pretty good album.
Total Run Time: 167:10
1. IHAC 1 - 5:10
2. IHAC 2 - 2:46
3. IHAC 3 - 3:20
4. IHAC 4 - 12:58
5. IHAC 5 - 2:34
6. IHAC 6 - 0:26
7. IHAC 7 - 2:00
8. IHAC 8 - 0:40
9. IHAC 9 - 8:09
10. IHAC 10 - 0:38
11. IHAC 11 - 7:52
12. IHAC 12 - 5:24
13. IHAC 13 - 13:17
14. ARGHH! 1 - 5:42
15. ARGHH! 2 - 0:54
16. ARGHH! 3 - 3:14
17. ARGHH! 4 - 7:38
18. ARGHH! 5 - 5:35
19. ARGHH! 6 - 0:26
20. ARGHH! 7 - 6:39
21. ARGHH! 8 - 13:42
22. ROTTEN 90's COMPUTER MUZIK A - 28:33
23. ROTTEN 90's COMPUTER MUZIK B - 29:33
Well, this is Kevin Drumm's longest album on his Bandcamp page. Almost three hours. This was originally a 3 disc set and one of the first paper CDr things he did. All the copies are gone though (I have to go to Discogs to get one, and damn they're expensive. We'll see how the album is). I mean, it's Kevin's 3-disc set of computer music! Track 1 is a bit of manipulated static, kinda cool but doesn't really serve a purpose as an intro or anything. Track 2 is much more interesting as an intro. Sounds a lot like This Heat's noise tracks/interlude things. Track 3 is weird, a cycle through seemingly random frequencies. Very fun track. Track 4 is super minimmal and lowercase. These static clips and rushes come in after gaps of silence mixed in with some other noises occasionally. Reminiscent of that big 4 person collaboration album Sachiko M was a part of, especially since a high frequency comes in at the end. Track 5 is basically an extention of track 3. Equally interesting sounds there. Track 6 is short, forgettable, and serves no purpose. Track 7 is the first REALLY really good track on here. Crazy intense (KD is amazing at that feeling). ONly 2 minutes though, I wish it was one of the longer ones here. Track 8 is super interesting, but also very short at only 40 seconds. Track 9 is another REALLY really good one. Same This Heat sounds, but much more sensory-overload. Track 10 is like a much faster version of track 3 and 5. Track 11 is amazing, a really nice drone with some extra noises layered on top but it's an awesome atmosphere. Track 12 has some very interesting synthetic rumble noises. Track 13 is some okay harsh noise, nothing too interesting. First three tracks of the second disc are pretty similar low buzzes w/ noise, not the most interesting thing ever. Track 4 is really cool. Track 5 and 6 are relatively uninteresting. Track 7 sounds like manipulation of raw data. Track 8 was nice, but not super interesting. I liked disc 1 quite a bit more. Disc 3 only consists of two, very similar tracks. Each track is very minimalist and focuses on flickering high-pitches along with occasional other lowercase noises. Disc 3 is my least favorite out of them. Overall, this release is a lot like The Obstacles of Romantic Exaggeration, except that album was done much much better. The last disc is incredibly boring, making this album a mediocre release.
Total Run Time: 54:00
1. Trouble - 54:00
Well, this is certainly a challenging release. The entire thing is insanely quiet and hard to hear (and Drumm absolutely insists that you play this at a low volume). I set my headphones about 1.5 times as loud as they usually are, and it was still pretty much impossible to hear. Combine that with all the outside bird/car noises and my computer fan and this release is one of the most active-listening challenges I've ever tried. Although I can still vaguely hear ghosts of super melodic super nice drones somewhere down there. Somewhere down that hole there's something amazingly pleasant. Or maybe that's a helicopter outside... it's hard to tell what's this and what isn't, it creates audio illusions for you.
Total Run Time: 42:50
1. Mithering The Skiving Gorm - 42:50
Oh dude, I cannot BELIEVE how long its been since I was here. Let's mark this. [TUESDAY,
MARCH 1st, 2022]. Is there any date I left when I was last here? Okay so it looks like it was a day after I went to
Six Flags at some point? Alright so looking at some info (revealed in the Tsundere Violence listening project), it
looks like the last time I was here was some time in July. Actually, screw it, let me just look on last.fm. Alright,
July 9th, 2021. Damn man. Well, now EVERY listening project I've been distracted with is complete (namely Nanocyborg
Uberholocaust, RINGEX PLASTER .2s, and updating all of them), and now it's time to listen to some nice ass drone
music. Sorry I stopped this, I just tried to do too many things at once. But here we are. Focusing on this. This will
be done eventually. Dope.
ANYWAYS it's now the next day and I just took an SAT. Was terrible, idk I think I did pretty good on it, but
just a terrible experience that I don't want to get into. This school has terrible planning and I didn't know I was
doing an SAT until a couple weeks ago. But it's done and we're not doing anything the rest of the day, so time to get
to listening to this thing again man. This is another one that's on the Elapsed Time box set, so I've heard this one
a couple times. It's pretty good. It's a nice drone, but like not harmonically nice you know? It's very low,
somewhat similar to Imperial Horizon, but quite a bit more resonant (but still as haunting, although I would argue
this one achieves that effect a bit better). At the 13 minute mark, it goes to silence and then this ULTRA haunting
thing comes in that's super dissonant, higher pitched (not high pitched at all, just higher than the previous
thing) with some especially powerful resonant notes that fade in and out. It only lasts for like two minutes
before it fades to silence. Then there's like 2 seconds of that but it sounds like transposed up, then a hard cut
to silence followed by some AMAZING low drone. This thing takes you on a journey, damn. This low drone sorta fades
into the same thing that the first segment was, but with some even more powerful resonance, and some dissonant
buzzes (kinda sound like that one Brise-Glace track with the insanely great drone). Then at about 22:30, the low
part fades out and it's JUST the resonance. Quite ghostly. The rest of it just continues to be super duper.
Absolutely briwiant.
Total Run Time: 37:48
1. PART A - 28:20
2. PART AA - 9:28
First track's a pretty average Kevin Drumm drone. Not especially harmonic nor disonant, it's
neat, but it is not at all a standout among his work. That being said, it's still nice to listen to. Part AA is
basically the same sound, I don't really here a difference. It's cool but it gets super boring and samey by the end
(I know that's the thing with music, but it's not that awesome of a sound to begin with, ya know?)
Total Run Time: 37:59
1. 1/16A - 18:35
2. 1/16B - 19:24
A pretty quiet drone one. First track sounds quite a bit like THE GAS BILL EP (one of his
albums I've had downloaded for a long time), but with less deep sounds. Sorta like just the resonance from that.
Sounds pretty much exactly like it though, maybe not the same SOUND, but the same general pitches and atmosphere. The
second continues that atmosphere but at a somewhat increased volume. But then it gets super quiet again, so maybe
that's a lie. It's alright, not at all a standout.
Total Run Time: 28:04
1. INTRO - 6:55
2. I - 2:20
3. II - 6:52
4. III - 3:48
5. IV - 3:49
6. V - 4:20
Ooh, a sort of EP style thing, interesting. INTRO is a drone that does a bit of a slow pulse,
very bassy, reminds me of spectrogram sound generation. Stops abruptly before the next track. Alright track, not
particularly awesome of a sound, but alright. Second track, a great sound. Doesn't change at all, but it's only two
minutes, so it's pretty cool. II is not a very great sound, and it clips. People seem to like this release a lot
more than I do. It's alright, but it's nothing really special at all. By the 4 minute mark, II starts to do some
cool things between alternating pitches. III isn't that good either, sorta like II but higher pitched. Sounds like
cicadas. IV is a super nice sound though. Lazar Beams. V isn't too great, a lower sine wave with an LFO. I really
don't see what people like so much about this album, especially for it to be the "best so far" (according to people
on Bandcamp also going through his catalog like I am). It's not really that good, the sounds on here seem a lot more
random than about evoking a particular atmosphere. None of them really do anything all that special.
Total Run Time: 32:44
1. More Answers - 32:44
God damn. Right now I am just fully in the mood to listen to some Kevin Drumm after the most
stressful day ever. My grandpa is dying of cancer and we're in Indiana right now during Spring Break to just help out
around the house and man, it's like they're both just fucking drowning man. This next month is going to be so hard
to get through, I swear my life is just getting worse by the month. January was so damn hard, and I knew it was
going to be, but what kept me going during that was that February had promise of easing up quite a bit. No, it did
not. It arguably got worse, what with a crazy amount of homework and worrying about college and shit. March has
already turned infinitely worse. It's hard too because during Christmas break was the first time I felt fully happy
in a VERY long time and January just took that away from me and now it's getting even worse. And you know what? This
album fucking perfectly encapsulates that feeling. It starts out as a nice, but impending drone, and then shit just
gets more dissonant and intense as it goes on. And it's not just especially good because it resonates so well with
shit hitting the fan right now (I mean, it does), it's just so fucking good, but I guess it's also extra special.
This is done so damn well. That low note that kicks in at 6 minutes? MMMMMM That turns everything so
disastrously perfect.
Sorry about last night's meltdown. But yeah, this album is super damn good. I wonder who did these
artworks.
Total Run Time: 33:00
1. TT 1 - 19:09
2. TT 2 - 13:51
Still in Indiana. A good time to grind some of these out I think. Another super quiet one
here. A lower resonance that goes into harmonic territory I haven't really heard from KD before. Not like it doesn't
sound like KD, it very much does, it's just a different set of notes that work together than I'm used to from him. A
different interval, you know? Second track sounds like a super drony version of audience cheer. It's alright, that
second track gets pretty boring.
Total Run Time: 104:04
1. Guillan-Barre - 17:23
2. More Blood And Guts - 19:57
3. Snow 1 - 16:03
4. Snow 2 - 18:44
5. Romantic Sores - 18:32
6. We All Get It In The End - 13:25
Well, this is somewhat of a major Kevin Drumm release. Arguably the MOST major one. Oh this
first track is... something else. Starts with this like slowed-down grandfather clock chime and then this absolutely
MASSIVE bass drone comes in and engulfs it all. Eventually the clock goes away and it's just the enourmous bass drone
left. Man, I need this CD. It's also quite a brilliant drone, it's not JUST bass. There's this amazing resonance
too, kinda like a much more intense version of the first track on Twinkle Toes. Second track starts with a little
bit of a hit and womble (that's the best way to describe the sound, it's sorta like the same sound as dropping a
metal lid but without the impact, it's a really damn good sound) and then jumps straight into this also amazing
drone (which goes through quite a bit of subtle variation). At about the 6 minute mark, it fades to silence, and
then another even BETTER drone comes in (this part might be one of the best single sounds I've ever heard from KD,
an almost glitchy, bright drone. This whole track reminds me a lot of 94diskont even though it doesn't really at all
sound the same, just from the same universe. Oh, and then at the 9 minute mark, that goes away. And the next
segment is basically the exact same noise as the beginning of Imperial Horizon (it might be the exact same clip
which was later turned into that full album (maybe this was originally a snippet from an hour long session and that
was turned into a bonus album or something). I like this sound a lot too. This track is really damn good. By the
end it becomes pretty layered though. Amazing track. Snow 1 isn't as powerful as the other two tracks, but still
pretty good. It's a pretty bassy drone, sorta like parts of Imperial Horizon but again, much less powerful and
particularly resonant. Snow 2 does a MUCH better job at that. Snow 2's another amazing track, this time being
quite similar to Guillan-Barre from earlier. Gets a bit boring by the end though, that last drone I don't like as
much as the rest of them. Romantic Sores starts with a pretty quiet and subtle drone that's alright, not the besst
drone on the album. But at 12 minutes in, when that super faded piano comes in... this is maybe one of the best
sounds Drumm has ever created. Love this piano so much oh my gawsh. And oh my gawsh, this last track continues
that feeling but brings it up to 11. This last track is possibly the most peaceful thing he's ever put out, it's
straight up ethereal. Well... until about 4 minutes in when this random dissonant drone from way earlier in the
album fades back in. Alright now this is a bit confusing, but super super interesting. Holy crap that scared me,
after droning on for a while it hard cuts into harsh noise wall for the last minute lol. Awesome. Amazing album,
definitely worthy of all the hype around it. Really might be his best album, I'll say it.
Total Run Time: 147:05
1. Night Side - 57:46
2. Winter Ice - 22:30
3. Taurean - 27:58
4. Gradual Extinction - 10:32
5. Return - 9:42
6. Grace - 9:48
7. Dimming The Gas Lights - 8:53
And the next upload is yet another KD classic. Love this one, I've heard it a few times. A
very peaceful (though stagnant) collection of magnificent drones. Night Side itself barely changes, but it's just
such a good sound. Quite a bit of subtle variation though.
Alright so turns out I'm listening to this a couple weeks later lol (I'm keeping up with this very sporadically).
I'm back at home, everything's alright (except for life just generally fucking sucking I guess but whatever that
might end in a couple months (I really do have to wait that long)). Gonna be doing some notes right now! So a good
time to catch up on this listening project and listen to something not that busy (and not just more Stars of the
Lid, I've been doing enough of that lately).
Second half of this first track especially has a lot of subtlety, with the main drone sometimes shifting a
bit. Now I never really noticed this until my previous listen, but around 32 minutes, the drone completely changes as
it slowly fades out while a new drone slowly fades in that's pretty much completely different. It's brilliant! It's
another really great drone too. So yeah this track works super well especially since you can just turn it on and do
work to it and not really have to worry about it, right? It's perfectly gasious, and peaceful while still remaining
dissonant? It's a weird atmosphere to describe, but this second drone is a lot more magical than the first. Over the
course of this thing, it eventually becomes a lot more peaceful, like it develops somehow. This second drone is
just so rich, wow. Alright Winter Ice. Some gradual pulses from silence into a pretty similar drone (but back to
dissonant). These pulses become pretty slow and quiet. This goes until it develops into another dissonant drone
super similar to the second half of Night Side. A lot of shifting in this one too, almost as if it's some
super-reverbed melody. Alright track. Not that great to be honest. Taurean on the other hand is an absolutely
wonderful and magnificently warm drone. Even warmer than Night Side. A LOT of resonance. The resonant pitch
actually gets higher as it goes on and gets a bit irritating by the end. Luckily, Gradual Extinction comes to fix
that and it's an EVEN WARMER drone than before (this album is just chock full of em wow) The last minute suddenly
changes to a different drone that's a lot brighter but is a quite strange chord that I really really like. I wish
Return isn't that great, it's this weird bulging drone that fades into this cicada noise. Oddly enough, it fades out
to silence, but Grace starts abruptly with the same Cicada-esque noise. Also gradually gets louder. Alright track.
Altight, now Dimming the Gas Lights is a banger. Absolutely apocalyptic low brass sounds right here, along with some
subtle helicopter pulsing. And that's it! Fantastic album! (Can't believe this took so long to review, it's now like
two or three weeks later and I'm writing this end part, idk why I didn't finish this when I finished this, but I'll
put this in the ranking now).
Total Run Time: 33:48
1. TWH1 - 20:20
2. TWH2 - 13:28
Well, now it's been a REALLY long time since I was last here. Over a year? Not sure. I'm on
the fourth segment of Bull of Heaven 118 though, really liking this atmosphere. I want to feel a little more
productive with what I'm doing so, I'm going back to Kevin Drumm! Also while doing homework again. This should be
interesting. Anyhow, I think this was on the Elapsed Time Box Set as well, so I can just listen to this in iTunes. So
this first track's soundscape: real chaotic and impending, a lot of dissonance. It seems like a clattering of metal,
but somehow electronic, and with these doom chords over it. It's strange, but interesting. Quite dynamic too, some
crazy sounds here. Near the end, it almost turns into a low bitrate version of itself, with a much larger emphasis
on low frequency noise. Almost as if a filter was just sorta put on it. Track 2 is much different. It starts out
with these stochastic bursts of noise, seemingly sample-based (seemingly originating from similar samples as the
first piece). Then it hard cuts into this water-swishing sound on top of an electronic hum. I really like this
noise, this piece just sounds like id m theft able. Then a hard cut into some suepr intense noise, almost like it's
digitally screaming at you. Super harsh, super cool. Eventually, it just sorta ends. But it was a great listen!
Glad to finally be back in action!
Total Run Time: 58:18
1. Imperial Horizon - 58:18
Ah, we're finally here. I owned this on my dad's iTunes account for probably over ten years,
and I've had it on CD for a couple. So I'm the first person to know that this Bandcamp upload's a bit weird. The
first difference is that the name of the track on the CD is "Just Lay Down And Forget It". The second, and arguably
more important one, is that the CD version of the track is over 6 minutes longer? It makes no sense, I'm just going
to be listening to the CD version for this review. It's a really strange atmosphere, a super loud ambient pad (don't
get that confused with distorted, because this is super warm and mellow, it's just also very very loud (if I remember
correctly, this actually clips at a few points)). It's a nice sound, but the way the low frequencies undulate almost
immediately give a headache. In that very same way though, this drone is extremely hypnotic. It is somehow both
dissonant and peaceful, oscillating between states of dread and utter calm. It's a really nice piece, a while back
I regularly used it to sleep. Its dissonance provides a sort of rhythm and pulse to this drone, it all combines
amazingly. What's more interesting is that while the track starts with only low frequencies and more melodic higher
frequencies fade in, by around 35 minutes in, the lower frequencies are entirely gone. Amazing piece, not
just because of nostalgia.
Total Run Time: 28:23
1. The Back Room A - 1:18
2. The Back Room B - 1:05
3. The Back Room C - 1:05
4. The Back Room D - 13:56
5. The Back Room E - 10:59
KEVIN DRUMM 🅱ACKROOMS IN REAL LIFE 😱😱😱😵💫. First three short tracks are all very loud, noisy,
and make use of high pitches. Tinnitus. They almost gave me a headache. I thought D might be a bit calmer since it
starts out as this nice drone, and then that harsh tinnitus hits you like a ton of bricks. Honestly, since getting
into Spirit They've Vanished and Sachiko M, I've sorta grown a liking to tinnitus sounds. So this is honestly quite
welcome. Then it's just very very noisy and amplified. It's so blown out that it actually sounds like one of the
RINGEX PLASTER tracks on the 34 hour piano album. Last track has some absolutely insane shrieking, very awesome
track, definitely my favorite of the bunch. Sounds like a cut from Halber Mensch. Overall amazing noise album with
amazing cover art by lovely Brent Gutzeit. Thanks for this experience, I now have a headache.