droid

Best of 2019 next month. Another toughie.

No love for the old reliable?

Ok, here we go - mixcloud link here. Was kind of fun to do, but certainly should've spent more time weighing up the options. Could easily have done five or ten shows like this. Its been the most prolific decade ever for ambient music (by my rough calculations).

We have an overview of the last decade of Ambient and Drone music coming up tonight at 9pm (GMT) if anyone's inclined to listen here: https://listen.dublindigitalradio.com/home Archive will be up on mixcloud over the next week or so.

Here's one for fans of the austere. Robert Curgenven: Climata by Robert Curgenven

Yes! I saw that, and thank you for the kind words, undeserved of course. We did a special on Donnacha a while ago. Spent ages trying to get him into the studio, but ended up doing it over the phone, despite the fact that he only lives about 15 miles away.

I was suspicious of the indie/postrock ambient thing for far too long, though a good friend of mine was a huge fan of the aforementioned, and Godspeed and the like. STOL have made some very serious and genuinely great ambient records and in general I think that whole scene has produced some very good music and pushed some boundaries. Riley sits up there as a one of the pioneers of minimalism, hugely influential, though a lot of his work falls more under the banner of serialism than sustained tone. I think perhaps one of his most important cultural innovations was the integration of Indian musical philosophy into the avant garde, a move that also connected minimalism with probably the most enduring and long lived drone tradition.

Started a thread over here about the glories of '95 jungle. http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=14720

The most harrowing film Ive seen about the Holocaust is Son of Saul. Absolutely brutal and deeply haunting.

I'd highly recommend this release. Saw a live performance of it a few years back that was overwhelmingly good: Mouvements by Donnacha Costello

The delineation between reverberated drone and sustained tones is interesting, and there is definitely a big difference in the aesthetic, and there's also people like Windy & Carl, Kyle Bobby Dunn and Celer who use guitar and loops to create dronish music. Ive heard the sound described as 'ambient drone', which I think is a subtle but important distinction. I guess Id see the major qualities that distinguish drone from ambient in general as being around approach, intent and genealogy. Whereas ambient is a fairly amorphous fusion of ideas from new age, environmental music and the avant garde, 'hardcore' or pure drone is a much more restrictive sub genre of classical minimalism that is based in ideas from the academy. The originators of the modern genre - the likes of Phil Niblock, Alvin Lucier, Radigue, La Monte young etc. all come from a classical avant garde tradition, which is reflected in the austerity and intensity of the music. Drone isnt music designed to be 'ignorable'. Its intended to be a serious, radical offshoot of experimental modernism.

Yeah! He's a dark horse, both the Maui albums are excellent. His recent Bandcamp things have also been really good. Suspension in transit is ultra-droney, reminds me a bit of France Jobin. Suspension In Transit by Anthony Child Seconded. Kali Malone is brilliant and that last Maria Horn album is outstanding.

Oh, and this is worth checking out. Some of the best (and only) writing about drone Ive read. Lovely lady as well. https://music.usc.edu/joanna-demers-drone-and-apocalypse/

Thanks. Yeah, its the culmination of many years of ambient and drone obsessions. Didn't mean to spam, but it was literally the first thread I saw and it seemed relevant. Great choices BTW, Kyema is an all time fave. Almost too much great drone to recommend individual releases... here's one very special tune though, devastating at high volume. Recommended if you want to destroy the minds of a large number of people at once:

Ah, thanks, that's very kind of you. I was actually a member here, many, many moons ago, but have been unable to re-register... until now.

This may be of interest: