Various – Troum Transformation Tapes

Transgredient

Troum have been illuminating the drone landscape for over two decades now, so to celebrate their twentieth anniversary, they decided to issue a lush two-disc set where they invited friends, family and interested parties to tackle their favourite selections from the Troum catalogue.  Together, they imbue those selected tracks with their own sense of style, place and atmosphere; it may only be a snippet that is subsumed into a fresh track or it may just be that a Troum track is a starting point for what the artist wants to offer, but all those involved have a personal connection to the duo. The brief explanations in the accompanying booklet shows all the love, appreciation and aspiration that Troum have come to engender.

There is a good two and a half hours of music here, spread across two discs, and considering it is all drone-based territory, it is a fantastically diverse listen, taking in all sorts of moods and environments. Allseit‘s take on “Times” is a classic opener for the album, the drone building really slowly, stretching inexorably towards you as if you were watching it from across some enormous stretch of desert. It builds and builds until a point where it is as if the sun is suddenly flooding your consciousness, and the volume and textures increase and flood your senses. Contrastate‘s version of “The Silent Fish” is genter, waving like an Eastern mirage, hard metallic elements insistent against the lighter feel of the drone itself, with the addition of some light beats to briefly tie everything together before allowing it to drift again. According to the sleeve-notes, Vance Orchestra reconvened specifically for this project and their take on “Gaiscei” brings a touch of luminescence to the proceedings. It feels as if certain frequencies have been omitted and it gives a lighter, clearer sound; a journey through pulsing landscapes with ambient noise all around, but only half heard, in passing as if it is being sifted through a sparse stretch of woodland.

The wonderful Martyn Bates gave a song that the band themselves have constructed a track around; his unique vocal has a dark folk feel over his looped acoustic that is then offered a bed of subtle drones that sit around the song like winter coat, while Nadja‘s version of “Mirrored In You” sounds submerged and heading further into the deep. You have to listen very carefully here as it feels as though everything is in a different place. I have to say though, the standout of disc one is Tarkatak‘s “Vs Brinnan”, which with its phased and restless female vocal, acting like a siren drawing you who knows where, nestling into a ghostly and starlit atmosphere. The track seems to circle higher and higher, pulling you through abandoned hallways and vast echoing chambers. It swells and swells in such a subtle way that your head is turned before you realise.

It is hard to believe that you are only half way through when you slip in disc two and QST up the energy with glitch, twitchy beats that have an unnatural dull thud. The rhythmic breathing and sporadic hi-hat lurking in the background of their mix of Troum’s “Kapotte Muziiek” help to alleviate the machinery feel, but the industrial minimalism they bring to the track is a welcome burst. In contrast, Ure Thrall‘s churchlike classical strings and drone track “Krypte” is a perfect example of a track sounding like its title. The organ noise is immersed and there is an aquatic sense of motion in the background and it is lovely; sepulchral, hushed, gentle, sinuous. Another outstanding moment that then jumps to the techno of O16 vs Myrrman‘s “Sen No 350”, whose gaseous noises and clang of doors down distant passages sit at strange odds to the looped beats and other disparate sounds.

Elsewhere across the disc, there is the distorted reverby griminess with an ’80s gothic feel of V.O.S. and the squelchy underwater bathysphere adventures of Dual‘s “TTN” (Dual being another group that reconvened for this event). For something as far-reaching and immersive as this project, there really is not a disappointing track. Cisfinitum‘s “Skauns” is gentle and searching while the dark ambience of Reutoff‘s “Hypoxia” has a dark vibrancy. The final track on the album, Moljebka Pvlse‘s “Ennoia”, is like a bizarrely slowed-down string quartet, its wavering, cautious intro and lulling interwoven sounds move at a fraction of normal speed and as the background textures begin to fade and the disc comes to a stop, the realisation dawns on what a journey this has been.

Troum have compiled something that sets new standards for drone-related compilations and they will have done wonders for the status of the lesser-known acts here. It is a fantastic and selfless way to give an overview of a twenty-year career. Here’s to twenty more!

-Mr Olivetti-