Everything you always wanted to know about drone but were afraid to ask.

February 10, 2005 5:25 AM

Everything you always wanted to know about drone but were afraid to ask. Written by Ron Scheppa of textura fame. (A shorter version of this article can be found in the current issue of Grooves Magazine.)
posted by soundofsuburbia (5 comments total)

It's not made too clear how ambient and drone are distinct. Leaving out Muslimgauze and Thaemlitz are particularly unfortunate omissions, as indeed Fripp's experiments in the mid- to late-90s. Still, it was a decent overview of the subgenre's earlier years.
posted by AlexReynolds at 7:42 AM on February 10, 2005

AlexReynolds: What do you mean about clarity of the article's description of different genres of music? It's not as if a piece's "genre" is a black & white demarkation. In my opinion. And I wouldn't say Muslimgauze is drone, although he did try some pure ambience.

Anyway, thanks for the link soundofsuburbia. This type of music is pretty much my favorite and it doesn't get much recognition even in the fringe.
posted by melt away at 4:08 PM on February 10, 2005

I wouldn't really consider No Pussyfooting drone-based (especially "Swastika Girls", and in light of Evening Star's "An Index of Metals").
posted by kenko at 4:37 PM on February 10, 2005

What do you mean about clarity of the article's description of different genres of music? It's not as if a piece's "genre" is a black & white demarkation.

Reading the piece and the musicians references, I don't see the reader coming away with a clear understanding of what makes drone drone and not something that floats vaguely within the wider genre of ambient music. That's all. I'd have to disagree on the Muslimgauze, at least partially. Some of his work is definitely drone-based.
posted by AlexReynolds at 4:45 PM on February 10, 2005

"Drone" certainly doesn't float within the wider genre of ambient music. (Calling "drone" a genre is contentious in itself--I personally can't stand it when descriptive, pre-existing words are used as genre names, siding with Lichtenberg--but considering that, say, the song for which Sting was nominated for an Oscar last year had a drone at its base (hurdy-gurdy), the relation between something that has or is based on a drone, even prominently, and "Drone", the genre, seems vexed.) Anyway, I wouldn't call Earth or Boris ambient. Some of Sunn 0))), maybe.
posted by kenko at 9:54 PM on February 10, 2005