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review by Bill Binkelman The trio Nebula Drone (Guido Kopp, electronics; Peter Schueller, electronics; Clive Egginton, guitar) have recorded an album that, while it does feature their namesake (drones) it's also the antithesis of that term because, unlike many drone-style recordings of recent time, there are fourteen tracks here and they all have something different and unique to offer. On is no drawn out slowly evolving drone. Instead, it's a rewarding series of songs that feature spacemusic, floating ambient, rhythmic EM, and hybrids of all three subgenres. Overall, I think this is a strong effort from the three musicians, and even with the switching in styles throughout the CD's songs, there is a cohesion and sense of similarity that is undeniable. "tethys drone" opens the CD strongly, marrying whistling drones and washes of sound to a slowly emerging fast tempo fractal rhythm. "the e-bow" begins all shadowy and mysterious, mixing warm drones with what sounds like chattering sampled vocals, eventually taking on a somewhat funereal feeling, owing to the presence of mournful choirs before shuffling polyrhythms are folded in (amazing use of reverb and echo effect on the assorted beats, by the way), joined by a sad wooden flute sample. "moon dawn" (one of my favorite songs on the CD) is both mysterious (via its minor key tonalities on assorted synths) and lively (due to its driving electronic rhythms). While some will hear the songs on On and draw comparisons to the Berlin school of music, and I'll grant you that there is that element at times, I think a better comparison is to the work of Spacecraft, the Nashville-based quartet who excel at weaving dense evolving soundscapes. In the same way as that foursome, Nebula Drone craft music which has a starting point and then slowly wends its way somewhere else, still retaining the basic "feel" of where it began. Unlike Spacecraft, at least on this recording, the trio work in the "miniature" arena (only one track here is longer than seven-minutes in duration). Some may find this somewhat unsatisfying, if they favor more of an overt continuity factor in their drone music. Myself, I have no such complaint. While, admittedly, the haunting "flatlines" might have been better served if it was allowed to go longer than its two-and-a-half minutes, the plus side of having fourteen songs (thereby the artists showing you much more than one or two musical visions) is far greater than any detriment from a lack of sustained development. From the quirky "phiyang" (the use of church organ-like keyboards morphs into a bouncy rhythmic excursion to a trippy soundscape) to the quasi-new age lushness of "nectaris" (layers of warm drones under discrete nature sounds melding into one of the more overt nods to Germanic EM with pulsing sequenced beats) to the TD homage-like "phaedra 2k" (another Berlin school beat-fest, as if you couldn't tell from the title) to the peppy danceability of "h@lluicnogene (yes, there's a sly nod to yet another EM artist in that title, and you'll hear it musically as well), to the spacemusic (circa Geodesium-style) textures of reverberation and slowly pulsing bass notes of "magnesium," On is a jam-packed album, filled with a variety of well-executed sonic portraits. Each "sketch" illustrates yet another aspect of drone/ambient/EM music, all done with plenty of style, technical proficiency, and artistry. I suppose with a name like Nebula Drone, some people will be disappointed if the music on this CD is less like, say, Stephen Philips or Steve Roach and more like Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream or any number of EM practitioners. As I stated before, while I admit being surprised by the wide diversity of the music on On, I was overjoyed to experience it. Don't be misled when I use the term "variety" into thinking that the tracks are disjointed or non-cohesive. I don't know how Kopp, Schueller and Egginton managed to pull all this together so well, but they did. By the time you get to "glockenraum" (the album closer), the listener is supremely satisfied, much as one would be after a great meal which consisted of diverse, yet harmonious foods. In a word, delicious - simply delicious. |
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