bartosso Goodbye

HELLO is another EP release from Ben Sharp aka Cloudkicker and this time we get 10 minutes of noise. Oh well, and I thought he took the easy way out with LOOP. As far as drone is concerned, I think it should never be the only component of the music. In HELLO it is the only component though and even though I consider myself a veeeery open-minded listener, this time I just got bored to death. Ben's lucky I'm not American as I'd surely sue him for that.

What else can be said about 10 minutes of drone tinged with post-rock atmosphere? Maybe I'll just present you with my point of view - there actually are drone albums I like. It's not that I hate the genre. Artists like Sunn O))) or Mories (Gnaw Their Tongues, Aderlating, De Magia Veterum) can put drone to a very good use. There are two conditions for that to work, though - it has to be used to create intriguing atmosphere and, as I've already mentioned, it shouldn't be the only element of the music. I'd go even further and say that drone has to be adventurous, ominous or unpredictable. It's like a crawling morph - changing shape in a mind-boggling way. Ben Sharp just abused his amps in a way that might have been entertaining for him, but certainly not for me.

I've always admired Cloudkicker for releasing his music for free. Both his soft, post-rock stuff and heavy, post metal albums are highly recommendable. This time he ventured into a genre without any solid ideas of exploring it though. That's why HELLO is just a boring, noisy and uninspired drag of an album.

- Available for download at any price on http://cloudkicker.bandcamp.com/album/hello -