OM Gossip #12

Monolithicly underwhelmed, Lil Bertucci, Nein+Nein

So for once, here is a book review. Because I was really super curious to read this book and couldn’t be more disappointed afterwards. I am talking about Harry Sword’s “Monolithic Undertow” - a book investigating the way of the drone from the neolithicum into the popular music universe. And the first 100 pages or so really are promising. For the first time have I read about the the Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni, Gnawa music, or the absolutely mesmerizing recording Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka. But then…it happens. It’s as if the cis-white-male-rock-critic-genes kick in. Sword’s view zones in on…badabing…rock music, preferably from Britain. After pages and pages and pages about Hawkwind, I kind of exhaled as I read on and found he spared out Pink Floyd. At least. But yet, the book increasingly feels like a drone bullshit bingo when he wordily meanders on about everyone from Sabbath (yawn) to Eno (yawn²) to Sonic Youth (yawn³) to Birmingham techno and Surgeon. For real, Harry Sword can find the drone anywhere. Now, you might say, this could be a good gateway book into the genre - Ash Rah, SunnO))), The Melvins, Neurosis - but there are blind spots. Sword is endlessly noodling on about mostly white male rockers. Mostly eurocentric, he uses The Master Musicians and Gnawa as one of the few non-european/-north american examples, and they are totally associated with traditionalism and - another red thread throughout the book - drugs, because obviously, you don’t seem to “get” the drone without drugs. Around 4 pages are dedicated to Eliane Radigue (and they were definitely edited in after lectorate), another 4 or 6 to Pauline Oliveros, and there is a whole chapter on Alice Coltrane, which is cool, but hey, where is the Radiophonic Workshop, Suzanne Ciani, Beatriz Ferreyra? Honestly, if you find the drone in The Stooges, you might find it also anywhere else, so why bother recounting the history of rock music for the umpteenth time? When you find the drone in The Bug, you might also find it in Xiu Xiu, Junior Kimbrough or PJ Harvey (gosh do I love this album). The US noise explosion of the 00’s is not mentioned with a word, not even Wolf Eyes. Same goes for Harsh Noise and HNW in general. All those vital scenes around the world messing around with drones - they are absent. Ok, he writes up some pages about Sarah Davachi, but this last chapter, zooming in on a “new generation” of musicians, seems more like a token. The book is a fun read, though, but really not much more. Sorry, I really had to get this out of my system. So - other news!

Also not featured in Monolithic Undertow is Lea Bertucci, one of the most exciting contemporary composers/musicians to use drones in their musics, but I am happy to welcome her in our erratically ongoing concert series at Z-Bau Nuremberg. Lea has become one of the most important international artists of new experimental music in recent years with her solo albums and in a duo with singer Amirtha Kidambi. Her main instrument is the saxophone, which she combines with tape loops, electronic sound generators and other wind instruments. Bertucci's repetitive drone compositions sensitively deal with the sound of a room, for her new album "A Visible Length Of Light" she increasingly uses musical improvisation to create shorter, but extremely concise atmospheric vignettes.

And even much better: Tintin Patrone will join in, a composer, musician, performance artist, filmmaker and painter. Influenced by the Fluxus movement, she experiments with trombone, effect devices, everyday objects and a variety of other instruments. Her performances oscillate between minimalist compositions and absurd happenings. Her music has already been released on labels such as Ana Ott, Stoffe or Pudel Produkte, and in 2021 she provided stage design and music for a production at the Schauspielhaus Hamburg.

Aaaaand, one last drone for today: The sixth release of improv noise heads DRNTTCKS [ˈdroʊn əˈtæks] is titled Nein + Nein and will be out December 9th on OM. On Nein + Nein, the duo for the first time deviated from their usual practice of recording all sessions directly and just editing around edges. During the lockdowns they found themselves in a situation wholly different to their improv approach - alone in the rehearsal room, they listened to what the other has recorded. All based on lose structures that were conceived during the last row of live shows before the shit hit the fan, these songs took shape brick by brick/take by take, resulting in a much more straight forward, defined sound which received an additional heavyweight fidelity treatment from OLO Mastering Berlin. Listen to the first prerelease track, Almanvirus, on bandcamp:

DRNTTCKS, by the way, also do have a colourful website.

End transmission #12.

Fuck the powers that be (and get vaccinated),
Ambassador Kaputt