Drones appear throughout the early history of music, across many cultures. They reflect nature’s most elemental hum, the chord that threads its way through creation, said to be the sound of the universe as it stretches out into the infinite unknown. Channelled in Indian spiritual music, through the battlefields of Scotland and on through the minimalism of pioneers like La Monte Young and Phil Niblock, the drone is a universal constant in music, one that instils a sense of vibrating in perfect synchronicity with the energy that surrounds us.

For Spiritual Friendship – the pairing of hip-hop beatmaker and producer Nick Hook (Run The Jewels, 50 Backwoods, Gangsta Boo) and fellow producer and noise maker Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, John Foxx) – the idea of creating a suite of drones was not informed by their own shared spiritualities or an awareness of the transcendent properties these sonic devices possess; instead, it was the electrical hum of a hot tub the pair were sharing one balmy night in Asheville, North Carolina that coincided with a eureka moment from Gareth.
The pair were in Asheville in the summer of 2017 for a week-long residency at the Moog Sound Space. Previous collaborations between the pair had taken place either at Nick’s studio in Brooklyn or Gareth’s studio in London, whereas for what became DRONES they were sharing an apartment together in Asheville, and the experience of being away from each other's normal equipment proved to be inspiring. They decided to build a fort out of vintage synthesisers in the upstairs performance space at Moog Sound Space and create a number of individual drones, each one representing one of four chakras – the root chakra, the sacral chakra, the heart chakra and the crown chakra.

The project referenced their debut album together (SPIRITUAL FRIENDSHIP, 2016) which comprised base elements of drums, drones, field recordings and sequences. In Asheville they decided they would make a series of albums isolating each of those individual elements. DRONES would be the first to be created, but to date only one of the pieces Nick and Gareth recorded during that week has been officially released (‘Root’, issued on Alternative Medicine as a limited edition cassette in 2018).

“I was pretty scared at first,” admits Nick as he recalls their Asheville sessions. “I'm a wild ADD, hyperactive kid. I didn't really understand how to do this. Gareth was like, ‘We’ll just set it up and let it breathe,’ and that’s what we did. When I heard all the harmonic interactions that could happen in a single drone, it felt like I was listening to free jazz.”

“Each of the drones is simple,” adds Gareth. “We chose to honour each of the chakras with a drone note. We didn't do any deep mystical research into the actual tuning – we just used the conventional scale for the drones. We set up a whole bunch of oscillators from Moog, and we borrowed a rig from Make Noise, who are also based in Asheville. It was important to us that we could fuse equipment from two companies who have been so inspirational to both of us. Just as Nick says, it all interacts with itself, almost as if there’s this gentle swaying between each of the frequencies, and these unexpected rhythms and melodies begin to emerge.”

The process for each of the new pieces would be the same: they would set up the drone around a particular note, meditate together for fifteen minutes, stand up and then hit record, allowing the ground tone they’d created to evolve and develop. The pieces, typically lasting around 45 minutes, were executed with no conversation between Nick and Gareth. They relied entirely on instinct, and the kind of shared deep listening and non-verbal cues normally the preserve of improvising players as they altered the sound they’d constructed using volume controls and filters. Each piece was created completely live, with no overdubs, each one displaying a commanding resonance and a restless, ever-changing hypnotic energy.

To launch the new Calllm ambient label, Nick and Gareth felt it was time to complete the DRONES project with two pieces referencing the remaining chakras – the throat and the third eye. “Pushed by the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, the end of 2020 and a realisation that we hadn’t seen each other physically this year, we decided to create these last two drones remotely,” explains Gareth. Nick created the basis for the third eye chakra and Gareth created the basis for the throat chakra. They then each added to the other’s creation remotely, thus finalising the suite of drone recordings they envisaged in Asheville.

Beginning on February 1st 2021, all seven DRONES will be made available as a weekly series of digital releases through Calllm. Each release will be accompanied by a Spiritual Friendship drone performance on YouTube and Twitch accompanied by live watercolour painting by Calm + Collect illustrator Hydriaillustrations and guided meditations from Quazzy.

DRONES release schedule
All live performances are scheduled for 1100 EST / 1600 GMT

Root – digital release February 1 / live performance February 2
Sacral – digital release February 8 / live performance February 9
Solar Plexus – digital release February 15 / live performance February 16
Heart – digital release February 21 / live performance February 23
Throat – digital release March 1 / live performance March 2
Third Eye – digital release March 8 / live performance March 9
Crown – digital release March 15 / live performance March 16

Spiritual Friendship discography:
Spiritual Friendship (Calm + Collect, 2016)
Drums (Calm + Collect, 2018)

This month it’s been 25 years since American industrial metal band Ministry released their cover version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Lay Lady Lay’ (February 1996).

The song was performed earlier during a charity concert in October 1994, with Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam performing the backing vocals. Later the studio version of the song was recorded and released as a 4 track CD single from Ministry’s sixth studio album, Filth Pig. The song also appears on the 2008 Ministry cover album, Cover Up.

In the Rolling Stone magazine’s review of Filth Pig, critic Jon Wiederhorn wrote that the cover "amalgamates a deep distorted bass line, clicking electronic percussion, jangling acoustic guitars, ominous curls of feedback and Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen's trademark howls”.

Lay Lady Lay (CD) Tracklist

Lyrics

Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Stay lady stay
Stay while the night is still ahead
Stay lady stay
Heaven's fills our head
Whatever colors that you have in your mind
I show them on to you and you see them shine

Stay lady stay
Stay with your man a while
Till the break of day
Then you're gonna see him smile
His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean
And you're the best thing, he's ever seen
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
You can have your cake and eat it too
Why wait any longer for the one you love
When he's standing over you?

Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Stay lady stay
We're gonna build the whole night ahead
I long to see you in the morning light
I long to reach for you all night

Lay lady lay
Lay lady lay
Lay lady lay
Lay lady lay
Lay lady lay

Songwriter: Bob Dylan

© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

DISCOGS

"Fear" EP, coming out on March 19th 2021, includes 3 brand new songs + 3 remixes by the big sensation Molchat Doma, the 80s heroes Clan Of Xymox, and one by the best new darkwave act, Forever Grey from LA.

The global pandemic has upset all the plans Ash Code had for 2020, numerous European gigs have been canceled including new USA and Latam tour. A new almost finished LP was trashed because it didn't fit with the reality of the moment.

The band experienced the negative mood of the lockdown months, stayed home mostly, and creating a series of online charity initiatives: the first made at home and then a series of online festivals gathering all the bands from the international darkwave / goth scene called Gothicat Festivals.

After spending the summer in Naples (South of Italy), the band established a new connection with the place they live in and found inspiration again to write new songs.

- Quote about 'FEAR' Video from the director Elio De Filippo:

"The video was inspired by the first experimental techniques of horizontal editing, a tribute to the great artists experimentation on film such as Armand Sabattier and Man Ray, pioneers of the solarization of the image, and Zbigniew Rybczyński.

A layering of images create unique and almost unpredictable effects in their interaction, an overlap of thoughts, memories, desires and synaesthesia that our mind has been forced to accumulate in a period we never dreamed of living: the lockdown.

The chromatic contrast created by the director of photography Jessica Squillante, inspired by the colors of Andy Warhol's screenprints, tends to emphasize with bright and unnatural colors a theme that is actually sad and oppressive, as in a natural mental defense mechanism."

Electronic music duo has put on the announcement sharing the details of their upcoming record. The full-length album titled 373AHELL would arrive on March 5th in the U.K. and on March 19th in the U.S.

373AHELL is going to become the first release for O C O S I after a significant pause. Following the release of three full-length albums and two collaborative releases with Horchata, O C O S I broke up, in the early 2000’s. Two constants of the project – Paul M. and Simon S parted their ways. Commenting on the difference between decades, Simon S. stresses: “Back then, everything was done in one room in London on an Ensoniq ASRX sampler and now it’s done long-distance in between Ibiza ( where Paul resides ) and Newcastle Upon Tyne – where I do.”

Paul M. adds: “ Simon and myself began bouncing sounds back and forth. Both knowing the O C O S I blueprint, the album came together quite naturally, and fast. The result was familiar, but also a move towards new sonic territories”

Despite the significant changes that happened in the field of electronic music and in particular with the members of
O C O S I, the representatives of Ohm Resistance notice that within “373AHELL”, the duo remained true to themselves combining slow beats, bass, avid usage of space. “Making a significant step forward they remained true to themselves”.

373AHELL track listing:

1. This Year's Hex
2. Sand
3. Deathwave
4. Inescapable
5. HAL 2
6. Deliquents
7. Basement
8. The Last Day
9. 373AHELL

Find O C O S I Online
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/O-C-O-S-I-115129133726516

Ohm Resistance

Website: https://ohmresistance.bandcamp.com/music
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/O-C-O-S-I-115129133726516

The Stooges classic 'Raw Power' was released on the seventh of February 1973. The game-changer. In 1997 Iggy Pop remixed the album, making it sound like a war of noise and aggression.

Some said there was no need to overhaul the original Bowie mix of this incendiary album, after all, it was that which caused such a huge influence on Punk in the 70s. Probably Pop did do a remix at the request of CBS, more than likely to stop anyone else from doing it.

'Raw Power' is a beautiful album of destruction.

Recorded in the autumn of '72 in London, with a new guitarist in James Williamson. He brought the extra cutting guitar licks into all this. When a suitable rhythm section could not be found, the Asheton brothers were brought back into the frame. Ron, being the original guitarist and core songwriter for the first two Stooges albums, this time switched to bass and the line-up was complete.

Pop produced and mixed the original sessions, but Bowie took the masters to remix them again. Several of the tracks were remixed in one day, another reason why Iggy may have felt in 1997 that he wanted to leave his stamp on it. Willamson and the late Ron Asheton had both publicly stated they preferred Bowie's mix of the album.

All this talk of remixes, does it really make a difference? In this case yes! On Iggy Pop's version, there is a lot more distortion in the mix, especially on the guitar lines, probably down to Pop keeping all the levels in the red and turning them up full for the remix. The noticeable difference is that the Asheton brothers are much more prevalent in the mix, unlike before. Ron proved he was handy enough with the bass, this seems closer to Pop's original vision for the album. Feedback and distortion over the loud mixes are the hallmark of Iggy Pop and The Stooges.

Ironically it was Bowie who pushed to get Pop back on the scene in the early 70s, due to Iggys spiralling heroin problem. What happened with the two gentlemen and their relocation to Berlin in the years that followed makes that effort by Bowie seem a slight contradiction.

Distortion and feedback and talk of remixes to one side, it is Iggy Pop at his finest. His vocal delivery is faultless, snarling, convincing and perhaps his best, from the 'Search And Destroy' opening line:

"I'm a streetwalking cheetah with a heart full of napalm

I'm a runaway son of the nuclear A-bomb"

to the closer -‘Death Trip', all is remarkably well delivered, like the collision of two nuclear warheads.

The argument will always be there surrounding this album. Which is the better version, the true version? That is whichever you personally like the most. The argument is there for both sides, but don't turn the attention away from the fine album it is and what it did for punk- rock, not only in the 70s but in general.

Raw Power (1973 LP Tracklist)

DISCOGS

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