Kevin Drumm, widely considered one of the crown princes of harsh noise, has always had the almost unmatched ability to diversify the medium in which his music is created while expressing many of the same emotions. Through textural washed-out ambient to the aforementioned harsh noise, most of his past albums share the common aesthetic of grinding, bed-wetting noise, yet they have seem him helm everything from the six-string prepared electric guitar to dual pulse generators to acoustic organ. Much of his recorded history and album concepts have been built around what instrument happened to tickle Drumm’s fancy at the time. Prior to now, Drumm’s instrumental explorations have mostly been separated and limited to one album or extended piece at a time. Like I said, until now.
Available now via Lasse Marhaug’s Pica Disk label is a 5CD box set aptly titled Necro Acoustic, showcasing what Brainwashed’s Creaig Dunton appropriately called “the full repertoire of Drumm.” The box set contains two entirely new albums — one recorded between 2006-2008 displaying the set’s namesake, the other being guitar material recorded last year. Necro Acoustic also features a limited-edition double cassette that was originally released by Hospital Productions back in 2009, along with an extremely diverse repertoire of unreleased material from way back in the day — I’m talking 1996 back in the day. I’m gonna say that this is probably an essential grab for any Drumm fan or really anyone wanting an introduction to the guy… or really, to drone/noise in general. I’m also gonna go ahead and say that these are probably fairly limited as far as pressings go, even though it’s basically a re-release of originally ultra-limited material (hmmm). Yeah, snag ‘em while you can.
Also, along this same vein, Thin Wrist Recordings have released an expanded version of the long-out-of-print self-titled debut album from Drumm. Comprised entirely of solo improvised guitar and originally recorded directly to cassette tape, this is Drumm at his most sparse and stripped down. Available on 2x 180-gram vinyl. Again, snag while you can.
• Kevin Drumm: http://recreationalpanick.blogspot.com
• Pica Disk: http://www.picadisk.com
• Thin Wrist: http://www.thinwrist.com
