Hard Rock

Quite a few odds and ends releases have come out of the interdimensional portal that leads to Alpha Drone in the past year or so. I understand the reason for the two Ash/Coal compilations fairly well, though I’ve got to say that I’m stumped about Hard Rock. In the first place, that’s a pretty misleading name for an EP of experimental ambient noise drone, while calling this an EP is also a bit generous, given that we get a remix and a brief teaser for AD’s forthcoming album, which - just to note facts - hasn’t appeared almost a year later. Added to that, both tracks were subsequently included on Ash to Coal, which was released less than a month later. You’ve got to be kidding me.

On the strength of the 3 minutes for which we are privileged to preview the album (which I suppose might be called Ora), the new AD is going to be a little more musical than For Ana. A vague drone increasing in volume sets the tone for heavily reverbed and echoed guitar playing a calm sequence of notes, a theme that evolves slightly when strongly compressed distorted instruments come in midway, giving the impression that two bands are jamming at a distance of about a block from one another; in the end, they do the sensible thing and the one furthest away stops playing before the end of the piece. In the case of the remixed version of ‘A Cross of Stars’, that was one of my favourite AD songs and largely survives the changes, though I don’t feel like it was improved, just pushed in a spacier and more hypnotic direction thanks to the downplaying of some musical elements and a new emphasis on ambience.

Of course, Hard Rock is extremely worthless in the light of Ash to Coal, while the music on offer is really minimal. The only reason this can’t be called a waste of tape and a lazy cash-grab is because it retails digitally on Alpha Drone’s Bandcamp page for a euro. Feel free to skip Hard Rock completely in your ambient noise journey.