Kevin Drumm — Trouble

Editions Mego presents the latest offering from the windy city’s Kevin Drumm. This new full-length CD entitled Trouble, offers a quieter side of Mr.Drumm’s output. And by quiet, I mean “hear a pin drop” quiet. For those unfamiliar, Kevin Drumm is a long-running avant-garde, sound artist from Chicago. He has tons of releases and has collaborated with scores of equally impressive artists (Prurient, Jim O’Rourke, and Aaron Dilloway to name a few). This is my second foray into Drumm’s work. Having been thoroughly impressed by last year’s Wrong Intersection, I must say that while his approach on Trouble doesn’t really seem like an odd departure for Drumm, it also wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

There should be a disclaimer with this release that warns listeners to play Trouble at maximum volume, otherwise you might sit through 54 minutes of silence. I’ll admit I had a bit of a struggle with this album, as it took me a good 10 minutes before noticing any recorded music on it. I thought perhaps something was wrong with my stereo or the music file was corrupted. It was only after turning up my non-audiophile stereo to the maximum peak volume of 40 that I was finally able to discern some sound. Even then, it was often with great effort. With that out of the way, Trouble is a 54 minute, single track of ambient, ethereal soundscapes. Subtle, sparse, minimal sounds drift hauntingly similar throughout the course of the entire album (at least when I was able to actually hear what was going on). While Drumm often toils in electronics, the sounds present on this disc reminds me of eastern ceremonial instruments. Listening to Trouble, conjures images of a monkish figure playing tibetan music bowls and gliding their fingers along the wet rims of glasses. There’s also a distant electronic hum (maybe?) that seems to course throughout the entirety of the disc, but it’s barely perceptible. Listening intently, there are moments that sound like things may begin to build, but then simply dissipate to near silence. It’s difficult listening in a way not usually associated with the phrase.

To appreciate this album requires a great degree of focus and patience by the listener, given the overall quietness of the effort. Of course, that seems to be Drumm’s intention: to make the listener do some work on their part. There’s no doubt this album will appeal to those who appreciate minimal drone and ambient music, however it comes across as a little too sleepy for me. To paraphrase a favorite film of mine, “I don’t respond well to mellow, if I get too mellow, I ripen...then rot.” That said, I can certainly enjoy this album given the right mood and frame of mind. In other words, for meditative accompaniment or soundtrack to my nocturnal dreamscapes….yes, for casual listening probably not.