The waveform viewer on SoundCloud doesn’t lie. It doesn’t tell you too much at a glance, but it can spoil the structure and the dynamics of a song in the few seconds between when the page loads and you click play. The truncated shadow display thing below the center line lies right to your face, though. It only shows a fraction of the wave’s lower half, a hint at the full breadth of what we hear. A long plateau of amplitude, a slow ascent, evenly distanced swells that inch the wave up into near peaking territory for five minutes and then back down when the clip clips off — this waveform promises some Barebones Minimalist Drone, that real La Monte Young worship, the pure, even tones to which one leans back and fades straight out.
Earlier this year, Kevin Doria (formerly of Growing [miss ya]) dusted off his Total Life moniker for Bender/Drifter, a pair of solo sessions that each fused multiple blasted oscillator wails into a wall of pulsing overtones. This excerpt from “Fader,” Total Life’s side of an upcoming split LP with Deceh on Important Records, finds Doria paring the drone down to one voice and focusing even more intently on tonal sculpting and layering. Tiny knob adjustments on his gear of choice accentuate the details of his oscillating sound source. As the track stretches on, numerous discernible waves and delay trails creep in to fill the stereo spread. It hypnotizes.
Keep your eyes on Important Records for ordering info on the Total Life/Deceh split LP. This applies to everything, but especially here: make the most of your purchase and turn the volume all the way up.
• Important Records: http://importantrecords.com
More about: Total Life
