Kid Millions and Jan St Werner – Imperium Droop

Thrill Jockey

Everyone’s favourite collaborating drummer Kid Millions has found a kind of solace in the arms of Mouse On Mars‘s arch experimentalist Jan St Werner. Perhaps solace isn’t quite the right word, as these glitchy, dusty scuffles are not particularly relaxing; but somehow have found an odd momentum. Recorded back in 2016/2017 for a handful of people and then tinkered with and added to in the intervening years, Imperium Droop finally comes grumbling and giggling into the public gaze.

A distorted call to prayer opens the album, and the drums set straight into a thunderous roiling with the electronics holding back, allowing a strange air of tension to build which travels throughout the album. There is a sense of a gentle duel taking place between the two, circling one another carefully, with the odd interjection from a guest. There is much restraint; but this is where the tension is, as if those things restrained are just about to break loose, and when it happens, it is in the blink of an eye.

The beats, when they hit, can be slow and the myriad electronics run the gamut of groans and throbs. Lunar pulses and buzzing howls don’t really flood the landscape so much as subtly infiltrate, working their way under your skin. Kid’s drums play the warm card, often haphazard but with a desire to chase the electronics even if they disappear, rather like a dog after bubbles.

Andrew Barker‘s bass clarinet adds plenty of depth to the near silence of “Astral Stare”, where each cymbal stroke resonates through the thinning air. By contrast, Mats Gustafsson‘s sax on “Nuclei Melodies” is a filthy beast that charges around the arena sore and sends the other two into a flurry of activity, as if they are attempting to escape from the creature by careening down grimy alleyways and back streets.

Their ability to change the mood from track to track is impressive, and the full range both of Kid Million’s playing and Jan St Werner’s esoteric soundscapes makes for dramatic contrasts from track to track. There is even a touch of funk from Richard Hoffman‘s bass on “Dark Tetrad”, which seems to have wandered in on the score for a sandstorm. There is no drum friend for the bass and it meanders in and out of the scene, trying to anchor the increasing tones that grumble and flicker like a growing nightmare. Matching the drums to the electronics has been a labour of love for Jan, who has spent the last four years tinkering with it to this point.

The result is well worthwhile and is something that keeps sounding fresh every time you spin it. Long may it continue to do so.

-Mr Olivetti-