For Ana

I’m having trouble deciding on an opening line for this review. I’m either going to go with “Brainchild of sole member Johann Aegidius Ritter” or “Brainfart of sole member Johann Aegidius Ritter”, but it’s difficult to tell which category Alpha Drone really fits into. You see, no sane person would actually make or listen to music like this, but there’s him making it and me listening to it, so I guess that labels us both. The concept behind the project seems to be deeply invested in sci-fi concepts like those propounded in Brave New World, though the real crux of Alpha Drone’s musical work is that “songs” are rarely produced, recording practices are dicey at best, and the resulting output could thus be judged as inept or experimental depending on your take. For Ana is the second full-length, following on nine years after the debut and taking the ambient qualities of the previous output as a starting point.

Only three tracks go by in the 36 minutes of the album, most of which can be summed up with the same few elements. Ritter is definitely fond of guitar drone, making use of slabs of ringing, distorted noise that aren’t too intense, creating a background for other ideas to surface. Those drone pulses are important because For Ana doesn’t do drums, meaning that the floating quality of the compositions tends towards ambient music in both its repetition and lack of definite features. However, the guitar sound is extremely rough and patchy, distortion and fuzzy recording quality pulling at the edges of the sound and leaving the impression that you’re listening to the by-product of a black metal demo, whereby the band had just finished recording but left their equipment plugged in and the tapes on, upon which the stoned guy from next door came in and mucked about with some of their stuff. Other than that, there’s not much. Some samples or field recordings get in on the action, which provide an aura of weirdness further to the uneasy drone. Lyrics are absent, though there are vocal effects used, which we will come to in a minute.

All the tracks are experimental in different ways, with ‘Dhruva Nakshatra’ the most conventional. That relatively brief opener builds up a steady drone while windy distortion billows around ethereally like a prehistoric storm captured on an ancient mp3, some more particular guitar shapes finishing off the experience. The title track is arguably the biggest challenge to regular musical expectations, since the backing is mostly low-resolution stuff without much shape and the main focus is on a long narrative. It seems a little unfair on Ana to dedicate the song to her, especially as the story seems part esoteric quest for truth and part struggle to describe something that isn’t there. The quality of the writing and delivery is not terribly convincing, even if the effect is atmospheric and quite trippy. Finally, the bulk of For Ana is taken up by the 22 minutes of ‘Omega Drone’. The piece can be divided cleanly into three sections: a long repetition of drone with moaning wordless vocals that sounds eerie and ephemeral; a ragged, crestfallen guitar motif that goes on too long; a sample of classical or opera music playing from an old recording and sounding slightly out of focus. There’s not much to choose between the cuts on the album from a musical point of view, but I feel most satisfied by the brief opener.

Now, here’s the question. If the name of Alpha Drone supposedly “symbolizes the superiority of theozoological eugenics attempting to restore man's divinity over modern ‘bee-hive’ genetic engineering attempting to increase man's economic productivity”, what does ‘Omega Drone’ symbolize as a song name? Is that what we should call the results of the ‘bee-hive’ method? Is it symptomatic of the same kind of eugenics that leads to teddy dogs with brains that don’t fit in their heads? If the alpha drone is supposed to be a superior system, is the omega drone the inferior opposite and the song – as an extension – an inferior product? Of course, in music so lacking in obvious features, it’s difficult to judge the situation without a lengthy analysis of the subtext (which I am not doing, just to clarify). Nevertheless, the oddness of For Ana qualifies as a definite point in its favour, leaving a host of interesting questions in the wake of listening. The music itself might be a little rough and a couple of the ideas questionable, but this album deserves a listen before you make your mind up. This is Alpha Drone, creation of Johann Aegidius Ritter.