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founding
Nov 5, 2021Liked by Ted Gioia

Not drones per se, but there's something deeply affecting about fog horns, cruise ship horns, etc. blasting and echoing over the water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmYh0GVrd5Q

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Oct 4, 2021Liked by Ted Gioia

In the rock genre, early efforts to incorporate the drone sound are "See My Friends" by the Kinks, recorded May 3rd, 1965, and "Ticket to Ride" by the Beatles, recorded in February, 1965. I'm late to the party, but thought this comment should accompany this conversation.

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I have always aid, only half kidding, that I would create a Church of the Holy Drones. We would worship and meditate to the sound of drones, for hours upon hours upon hours.

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Sep 30, 2021Liked by Ted Gioia

as for the shamanic side, Phurpa released last month latest recording of their Bon Ritual clocking around 3 hours, :)

https://modernbon.bandcamp.com/album/hymns-and-rituals-of-gyer

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ofc the subject is vast & you can't name everyone, but still, doing a whole drone piece without mentioning the sort of emperor doing that kind of thing on a massive scale for half a century, come on, bring some love to Phill Niblock (not to mention his music is currently recorded/released these pandemic days like never before)

as an aside, may I suggest Bendik Giske for those already in love with Colin Stetson ? pretty much like what The Essence was to the Cure ^^

https://bendikgiske.bandcamp.com/track/cruising

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I appreciate the illuminating trail you're carving through the vacuous cane break of pedestrian pop culture consumption. I reckon, that I'm a long-time, old-time, any-time, deep-time foot soldier (more accurately a guerrilla, ranger or pilgrim) of the Drone, as well as its good buddy the Clave.

The struggle in which you wrap-up this discussion with—between the constrictive, gated and walled-in, "western" Pythagorean model and the considerably more ancient and free-air living "alternative perspective" of music that utilizes the Drone, Groove, Yodel, and Trance within its toolkit, is spot-on and unceasingly present—once recognized.

But, sure enough, this is not necessarily a battle between "Western" & "Eastern", nor is it the ancient versus the modern, as much as it is one about domination and liberation.

As a musician, my main axe is the banjo, originally I'm a Kentuckian from the mountain music tradition of fiddle and banjo music, but it's that Drone that set me off—chasing after it to East and West Africa, The Middle East, and now Scandinavia. But, back to Appalachian mountain music, that High Lonesome sound, at its core, it's actually a sort of microtonal and polyphonic music based upon the weaving of lines, the in-between notes matter, grooves with the slight shifting of motifs fitting the individual player's whims of fancy at the moment—improvisation, all guided by the desires of the Drone.

Gallons of ink have poured forth in the last century detailing the barbaric genius found within this "crude", creatively brutal confluence of Indigenous, African, European, and Asian cultures, the mélange of the Americas. Son House, Othar Turner, Roscoe Holcomb, etc., etc., etc... … These are the days of Drone, as sure as any, but we must first eliminate the killer drone policies.

Thanks for the good work and cheers

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Sep 30, 2021Liked by Ted Gioia

I love Tuvan throat singing, which is based on a low drone. E.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0YKDFq_4Uc

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I think this is one of the reasons I like Celtic music and the music of Lorenna McKennit. Her 'The Book of Secrets" is transporting.

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Sep 29, 2021Liked by Ted Gioia

I’m curious whether the widespread use of reverb in studio recordings is part of this same dynamic.

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Sep 29, 2021Liked by Ted Gioia

The Didgeridoo.

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