Exploring the wonderful world of minimalist noise
It’s a simple enough request and I’m happy to oblige: on May 10 Weird Canada joked on Twitter that we should all spend the day listening to drone music. National Drone Day they suggested.
It took off or at least enough people “liked” the idea and now May 10 is being celebrated by fringe music enthusiasts Canada-wide with live drone music events surfacing in numerous cities across the country. Of course drone music hardly tends to be popular with regular folk so with that in mind I present to you: the drone a brief guide for beginners and/or those who just don’t get it.
The most basic definition of “drone music” I’ll offer is that drone tends to emphasize sustain whether it’s a single note chord or some other repeated sound. For this reason drone is often spoken about in regards to either minimalism (if you went to college) or noise (if you said fuck college) and both are fair comparisons — it’s not music that makes itself known easily despite knee-jerk criticism that it can be “easy” to create.
However drone music can serve as a sort of gateway into fringe music for newer listeners. Within the drone one can find a meeting point between everything from harsh noise walls and the electric dread of doom metal to the weightless drift of new age and ambience — in short it often bridges the distance between what most recognize as “music” and “sound art.”
There are numerous entry points to drone music. One could trace it back to the ’60s with works from Tony Conrad John Cale and La Monte Young (to name but a few). A studious mind could get lost in the dense layers of Phill Niblock’s work such as the newly reissued trombone and tape drone masterwork Nothin’ to Look at Just a Record (1982). The physicality of sound and analog recording can also be important — tape recordings and room tone itself are instrumental in works by Alvin Lucier and Eliane Radigue.
For something more recent one might recognize the sonic cathedrals of Tim Hecker the meditations of Emeralds (and all of the members’ related projects) or about a decade’s worth of record store snob-approved records from Double Leopards. Even the metal bangers have a say: Earth’s debut LP Earth 2 deconstructed guitar riffs into drone and Sunn o))) made a career on recrafting it. Skullflower took drone rock and made it psychedelic. Pelt did it with acoustic instruments. Hell somebody even slowed a Justin Bieber song down by 800 per cent. Drone covers a range of sounds: soothing or dissonant claustrophobic or expansive compressing time or expanding it — or perhaps even all of those at once.
The Calgary drone day event is taking place at the Oolong Tea House in Kensington showcasing a number of local droners: the ambience of Pinery the “frustration drone” of Starr Party a “versus” set of fog electronics between Moss Harvest and D.F.H. Coma Cult’s “barewire circuit tonal sustainment” and the modular synth density of Pedro Monkeyfinger.
While it’s unlikely that Jeeps will be blasting Phill Niblock along 17th Ave. this summer (prove me wrong Calgary) there are still plenty of ways to make sure you get some drone into your life this May 10. The day’s official site ( droneday.org ) also has a well-curated list of drone artists (both Canadian and international) so why not start there?
