In the strange sonic world generated by the experimental duet Drums of Drone, the participants seem to arrive from polar extremes. Entering from stage right and carrying a six-string on his back, Sean Luciw feeds melodic guitar-fuel into the transformative forge and furnace that is Rónan McGrath's brain and his psychedelic computer.
"The Shell" is the name of the debut album by Drums of Drone, scheduled for Sept. 25 official release on Ulusulu Music (Sean's micro-vanity label) in cassette format and digital download at Bandcamp. For convenient comparative reference, they sound something like Fripp & Eno, Boyd Rice, Yellow Swans, La Monte Young, Emeralds, or Black To Comm.
Keeping contrivance to an absolute minimum, all Drums of Drone performances are 100% improvised. This way, creation's inherent sense of mystery is faithfully transmitted to the audience. The band's name is approximately 50% ironic, given the complete lack of drum rhythms in their abstract, noisy ear-soup. Colouring outside the lines of tonality, their ambient drones exist primarily beyond the standard chromatic palette. Sean says, "When I first started playing guitar way back in the previous millennium, I could have never imagined it would sound like this. I never know what's going to happen when I show up to a Drums of Drone session."
Sean's other projects, as guitarist and producer, include a lot of metal, rock, blues, reggae, jazz fusion, drum-and-bass and experimental techno in bands such as Jagged, Sadistic Humor, Murdertribe, Tragedy Hashbrown, The Big Buddha Belly, Structure and his most infamous alias, Lex Plexus. All-genre becomes non-genre, perhaps? Rónan also performs in the always-evolving experimental band No Spectrum, as well as releasing avant-garde music with Kaleider, All My Evils, Audiophysiopsychics, and Sxa Ormbjument (pronunciation lessons available). Rónan is also co-proprietor of super-hip Bollokscraft Records as well as Kamloops' one-and-only record store, Barnacle Records.
improvisation recorded live in the studio at ulusulu music
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