Lasse Marhaug’s Picadisk label seems to be on a mission to release great box sets which showcase the work of some of the leading proponents of noise. Not content with devoting 4 discs to Government Alpha, 10 to Incapacitants and 4 to Lasse Marhaug himself, they have now issued this ESSENTIAL 5 disc set which collects together some rare and unreleased material from the oeuvre of Chicago’s Kevin Drumm. Necro Acoustic spans the whole of Drumm’s career, with recordings from 1996 to 2009, and covers the full range of styles he has excelled in, from the brutality of his Mego work to the dark glistening of the recent pair on Hospital Productions – and much more.
Probably the earliest thing on here is the full version of Organ, an abridged version of which appears on Comedy. Recorded in 1996 by Jim O’Rourke, this is an intense and sludgy piece of keyboard drone which through room shaking bass and relentless repetition seems to prefigure the work of Sunn O))). The early and comparatively fragmentary Decrepit mainly covers 1998-99; “Blistering Statick” sounds as good as you’d imagine given its title, the ruptured torrent of noise signposting the direction Drumm would explore to jaw-dropping effect on Sheer Hellish Miasmah. Yet a track of the same title turns upon Lights Out, a new collection of unreleased material from 2006-08, but it is wholly different – far quieter, just a malevolent hiss and pulse, bridging the gap to more recent material like Imperial Horizon. Of the new material on Necro Acoustic, the prepared guitar noise on the No Edit CD is particularly fascinating for the mixture of frequencies and textures that Drumm wrings out of his instrument, and for the intricate way he knits them all together. The two tracks on this cover an astonishing range from fast-paced slices of crunch and crackle to sections of 303 acid squelch, from screaming high frequencies to, well, screams. At times you can hear the hum of an amp, or something clanging against a metal string, but for the most part it is entirely unrecognisable as guitar.
I doubted it was possible, but this collection has left me even more convinced of Drumm’s importance – and his genius. Did I mention that Necro Acoustic only costs £30? If I had, you wouldn’t still be reading, surely. Get yourself to Boomkat immediately.
1 comment
May 29, 2010 at 7:15 pm
johan
I have really loved Imperial Distortion. I quite enjoy weird, borring and noisy music but I’m not ready yet for harsh noise and high pitch ear splitting music. Some of the Kevin Drumm stuff I have listen to are too far into noise for me. Fascinating tough, but unlistenable.
I’d like to buy this box set but I wonder how much of it i would enjoy. Maybe I’ll buy the great looking 2LP reissue of his first album instead.