Dielectric Drone All-Stars "Dr. One" 2xCD
[Dielectric]
The Dielectric Drone All-Stars is a very fitting name for this five-person project that specializes in hypnotic, droning mastery through the manipulation of a 40" symphonic gong, double bass, accordion, violin, didgeridoos, and an electric train. The material comes off as very minimal. There's definitely some layering involved, lots of it in fact, but the end result is still very quiet and faint most of the time, with nothing more than drones and swells in large part. It's far more melodic than anticipated though, which actually pleases me greatly and makes for a thoroughly enjoyable listening experience. Disc 1's "Trainline" is a massive 25 minutes, definitely carrying a sort of film score quality to it in an abstract way. It gets fairly sinister towards the end with some percussive sounds and more of a low ambient rumble, which is a bit of a departure in theory, but still maintains a very minimal aesthetic and flowing sort of hum. "Plotinian Plateau" opens disc 2 at 28 minutes and seems to be slightly more aggressive in a sense, as some of the sounds almost come off as field recordings or samples, though that's highly unlikely in truth. A watery sort of texture comes into play, definitely suggestive of a visual element, and it gets slightly more "musical" at times, even becoming quite loud towards its latter moments. "Fatal Blow" is also somewhat more musical and percussive, subtly so... getting excruciatingly loud and peaking to distortion (intentionally) in one enormous swell during the final minute. Then "Sote's Camouflage" employs far more movement, including some loops and blatantly percussive sounds. At only five minutes the piece is brief compared to most of the others, but not nearly as effective as the other tracks due to its less simplistic elements. As a whole disc 2 is definitely more involved and stands separate from the first CD, though in some ways it's not as strong as a result. Very clear recordings and mixes with a good representation of tonal ranges spice up the material, and the discs are housed in a large digipack sleeve that uses a lot of Dielectric's token orange tones with some black and white photos of trains, electrical lines, etc. It doesn't look bad, but it's not a terribly interesting presentation either. I can live with it, however. Inside one of the panels is a Shakespeare quote from "The Tempest" that I think fits this release very well: "Be not afraid, the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum about mine ears..." All in all this is a really strong release that takes a fairly standard concept and shows just how far it can be taken. Worth checking out for fans of droning minimalism. (7/10)
Running time - 1:28:34, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Amon Hen, Trainline, Plotinian Plateau]
Dielectric Records - http://www.dielectricrecords.com

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