Quicksails might as well represent the nexus of the drone universe. They melt stacks and stacks of OPN/Mego/ambient tapes into one neat pile, condensing what has become a bloated genre into digestible form. Also, Dave Smolen and hair_loss (who, together, ended up forming Metasplice) work with similar sets of effects. I’m all for it. Ben Billington trims the fat obsessively; this ain’t sloppy Texas gristle-brisket, this is lean, smooth, unmarbled meat of the highest order. Playing scads of effects against longform drift seems like such a played-out idea, but in the right hands the strategy carries endless charm. Dismiss Quicksails at your own peril. It’s interesting to hear this release from Teen River after digging on that Julie Byrne tape, as there’s quite a contrast between the two, for the record (or the tape).
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