Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Brendan Murray - Commonwealth [23 Five - 2008]

Commonwealth is a single long form piece of hypnotic, captivating and dense drone craft by US sound artist Brendan Murray- this is his forth full length release.

The piece last in all just shy of the 50 minutes mark and spends most of it’s running time building and building on it's self again and again to give this very tight and quite airless harmonic field which I guess is best described as almost air craft motor or sustained vacuum cleaner like drone but with of course with a more harmonic edge. There’s no hint as to what Murray is using to make the sound here but to me it sounds like a mass of sustained organ or synth tones, but it could equally be sustained string or piano tone.  Over time you become almost one with the tight dense pitchers of sound and the subtle sonic 'notching up'. But the most rewarding and brain scrambling moments come when you think Murray is starting to fade the piece out as it seems to dip down smaller and thinner you, mind convinced it will stop altogether soon but Murray skilful keeps this thinning down up for what seems like hours but must only be about 20 minutes or so.

An intriguing and mind altering piece of drone build up then stripping down that will get you caught like a rabbit in the headlights locked into it’s growing then debilitating  sonic state.

Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5

Roger Batty
Latest Reviews

Brendan Murray - Commonwealth
Commonwealth is a single long form piece of hypnotic, captivating and dense drone craft by US sound artist Brendan Murray- this is his forth f...
200625   Dick Dynamite: 1944 - Dick D...
200625   Various Artists - Electric Ju...
190625   I Heart Willie - I Heart Will...
190625   Throbbing Gristle - Live at ...
190625   No Fun HNW/ Hana Haruna - Split
190625   The House of Witchcraft - Th...
190625   The Cathedral Of New Emotions...
180625   SELM - dehNUNG
170625   Butchwife - Chronic Nausea
170625   Raté - L7hN
Latest Articles

Matthew Holmes - Of razor-sharp t...
It’s fair to say the Sharksploitation genre is often tried, tested, and to be honest, tired. Fear Below is a 2025 Australian film that tries to do some...
180625   Matthew Holmes - Of razor-sha...
280525   The Residents - Visits From T...
090525   Ennaytch - Of walls, abused ...
150425   Dead, Dead Swans interview - ...
110325   Sebastian Tomb - Walls of unb...
040225   Alien Sex Fiend - Possessed B...
231224   Best Of 2024 - Music, Sound &...
191224   Splintered - Somewhere Betwee...
031224   Shane Ryan-Reid - Coerced and...
221024   Whore’s Breath - life’s h...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2025. Twenty four years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom