Originally Posted by Frownland

I'll get to those reviews soon, gentlemen. I'm going to do another in the meantime.


Gunther's Grass is a San Diego based drone duo. Marcelo Radulovich plays hurdy gurdy and the other member, Christopher Adler, plays the khaen. There are some other musicians who join the bill as well. Scott Walton joins in on bass on the tracks "Earlier in the Future That Dawned Earlier On," "Boat People," and "Hull." Charles Curtis plays cello on the tracks "Automatic Writing" and is also on "Hull" with Walton and the others. Lastly, we have Marcos Fernandes playing tamboura box on "Boat People." Given that not everyone knows what these instruments are, I'll post some photos of them.


The hurdy-gurdy is a stringed instrument that is bowed using a rosined wheel, which is controlled by a handcrank. There are also keys that can change the pitch of the strings and it sounds pretty sweet. Hurdy-gurdies date back to Eleventh Century B.C. where they are depicted by Ibn Khurradadhbih (like a badass version of Marco Polo). However, the instrument was not in its modern form by that time. Due to the original size of the liras or organastrums used in the Byzantine Empire that Khurradadbih, it was played by two people at once: one person for the hand crank and one for the keys. There are other early reports that the organastrums were also used in Spain and some Middle Eastern countries, likely because of merchants spreading the various elements of the cultures that they visited. After its time in the Middle East, the solo organstrum appeared. Early versions of the solo organastrum— which is similar to the hurdy-gurdies that we see today—first appeared in Spain and France. In 1968, Donovan released the song "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and sparked interest in the instrument, although the instrument wasn't present on the track. It's since been revived after a long break and used in several genres, but I think that it's an instrument best suited for drone.


The khaen is a mouth organ instrument made up of hollowed out bamboo shoots. It uses a free reed similar to a harmonica or harmonium and when combined with circular breathing it can be pretty interesting. Khaens date back to the Bronze Age (1000-700ish BC) Laos, where it was allegedly created by a woman who just felt like making some instruments that day. She recreated her bamboo contraption until she was ready to reveal it to the king or whateverthefuck ruler they had there. After she played it for Sir Whoeverthefuck, the gentleman said he enjoyed it and then he named it "khaen" because some kings are dicks who want to take credit for everything.


You guys know about this probably.


You probably know about the cello, too. If you don't, think of the stand-up bass's younger cousin.


A cigar box sitar. Well how about that. Sitars are badass and cigar box guitars are badass, I can't believe I never heard of or thought of this creation before Gunther's Grass.

Never in the Future That Dawned Earlier On is a beautiful album full of sustained drones that touches on some magical moments, really. All of the music is improvised, but whether or not there is some structure, I'm not sure. There are six tracks on the album and none of them are below six minutes long, in fact most of these are in the 12-16 minute mark. This is a lot more pleasant than a lot of the other drone groups that I've heard, but I do hear overtones of Keiji Haino's hurdy-gurdy playing (I highly recommend listening to any of the versions of Haino's 21st Century Hardy-Guide-Y-Man).

Even though this is a drone record full of long and blaring chords, it still moves around quite a bit. To be honest I think that it makes it a little more accessible than the more difficult drone music that they're emulating, such as La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music which included John Cale, Angus MacLise, Tony Conrad, Terry Riley, John Hassell, and Terry Jennings, among others. NITFTDEO hits all the right points of drone music, in my opinion, and I think that it would be a great starter for anyone who's really interested in getting to know the genre.

Here's a live video of the group:
(No it isn't: videos are removed from these extracts. Go to his journal to see the thing.)

And here's an art piece that's cool:

Salvador Dali - The Great Batlord