Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

Drone

colourformoney

Label: My Kung Fu Release Date: 29/01/2007

20088
Daniel_Indeed by Daniel Ross January 11th, 2007

There's real warmth to one-man technology-wastrel Drone's, err, drones. They rarely beach above a light titter of drum loops and bloopy melodies hacked out on a Fisher Price keyboard, but it is thanks to this restraint that they become so insidious. Those cheapy bleeby sounds are oddly human and loving, disarmingly engaging for such simple compositions. And when this Drone opens his mouth, we are again thrown headfirst into some dark human corners.

Like the quietest bludgeoning ever, 'Spiderhead' is freakishly repetitive and malevolent, its slight pulse buoyed by the vocal loop of the title. Such trickery and devilish mood-construction is the calling card of a well-studied concept, and the wherewithal to execute it finely. Atmospheres are created and destroyed wilfully, with precision and flamboyance in equal measure.

colourformoney reaches its creative apotheosis on the dour and spurned 'Etherheart', a destructively frank account of a final physical encounter told by a grizzly, well-spoken narrator. The simplicity of the plinking arrangement underneath (and sometimes creeping round the sides of) the text lightly colours the sentiments in a fashion as sensitive as any this side of a GY!BE record. It's almost a shame when the narrator tells us "none of this really happened"; it makes the listener question his or her own susceptibility to being led towards an emotional dead end, proof that we are under a spell with this music.

At over an hour long, this does wear thin. The skewed beats bore into your brain a little too much, each song becoming gradually oppressive, which is a shame. This is a collection of fantastic ideas thrust in your face without any time to digest them. By the time you've recovered from one emotional slap in the chops, you've got no time to dust yourself off for the next one, and that's too much like a stressful listen. But maybe that's the idea. If it is, kudos. If it isn't, slow down and edit yourself, Mr. Drone.

But this is promising. Just the right amount and blending of menace and empathy secure colourformoney as the beginning of what could be a brilliant career.

  • 7
    Daniel Ross's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing


  • Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alternative must sees



Left-arrow

Bugpowder at Barfly at The Graduate, Cambridge, Mon 04 Dec

Mobback
19210
17358

Holly Golightly

Christmas Tree's On Fire

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024

  • 106145
  • news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143

    news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141
  • news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139

    Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138
  • Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137

    Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
  • Festival Review


    Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019

  • 106135
MORE


    Interview


    Ace of Bass: DiS Meets Royal Blood

  • 97097
  • feature


    DiS meets At the Drive-In

  • 12223

    feature


    A Month in Records: August 2008

  • 33467
  • feature


    Nicky Wire on the press, Shirley Bassey, and th...

  • 50002

    Discography Reassessed


    Oeuvre Here: An 18 Album Voyage Through Ringo S...

  • 100438
  • Interview


    Life, Death and Broken Bells - DiS meets James ...

  • 82768

    In Depth


    Fade to black: DiS meets The Horrors

  • 48012
  • feature


    Radiohead's In Rainbows: the fans' verdict

  • 27997
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2025 DROWNED IN SOUND