Twenty Hertz
The last time these two got together to make some music, I was thoroughly blown away by the results. Behind Your Very Eyesis an amazing piece of cinematic drone work that set a new mark tomeasure these kinds of records by. Drone music is notoriouslytwo-faced; either it works or it doesn't. There really isn't any middleground for the music to tread on so far as enjoy-ability goes. That'snow changing with the release of Confluence. Colin Potter andPaul Bradley recorded the first track as a kind of cluster: the soundsare reworked from studio rehearsals and so on until they are made tosound harmonious. The two following tracks are remixes of this firsttrack. This all sounds fine, but Confluence is amazingly unevenas a record. Where Colin Potter and Paul Bradley succeeded before wasin their radically transformative flow of sound. I feel a bit uneasycalling their music "drone" because their stream of noise and samplessimply never sat still long enough to drone away into the darkness.Potter and Bradley both used, in the past, a wide palette of musicaland non-musical sounds to create an emotional and sensational (relatingto the senses) experience. The first track on here, however, is afairly monotone mix of wind tunnels, chimes, and various effects thatare far too related. Diversity can often lead to a kind of unity thatbecomes recognizable upon repeated listens, but no such quality isevident on "Confluence 1." That being said, the track is relaxing andheads and shoulders above other similar songs. I know, however, justhow good Potter and Bradley can be and so I am disappointed by the lackof change and difference on this song. "Confluence 2" and "Confluence3" both suffer from the same problem as "Confluence 1" though indifferent ways. "Confluence 2" sounds as though it is based on onesound source alone. That source is then pitched, slowed down, and spedup to create different degrees of textural tension and shiftingmelodies. A few minutes of this sort of thing would be great, but thesong is over seventeen minutes long and just drags a bit too much.There are some creepy samples to be found here and there (readilyrecognizable as slightly morphed versions of sounds that are on"Confluence 1"), but they do little to add to the appeal of the song."Confluence 3" is the aquatic closer on this record and it is the bestof the three tracks. The sounds here are more open, moretransformative, and they resonate in a way that creates the sort ofethereal heaviness that always attracts me to Potter's work. Thepreviously silenced noise samples are now front and center and theirdevelopment works well with the tones that surround them. The churningreminds me of the sound of coffee running through a grinder for somereason (a manual one, not electric) and its wavering quality is verycomforting. This record sounds a bit haphazard and unfinished and thevery nature of its creation suggests that there could've been more roomfor development. The album could have certainly used it; it has a lotof potential, but needs to be thought out more carefully. Read More
