Albums

Drone - colourformoney

Dan Round 31/12/2006

Rating: 3/5

Cassidy Phillips, alias Drone, is an enthusing experimental musician, and his colourformoney is the first full length album of material to be released. Lo-Fi in sound, naturalistic in feel and varying from soothing to, at times unsettling in expression, colourformoney shows Drone's ambitious attempts at pulling together all manner of soundscapes, instruments, recording techniques and digital perfection - and in the large part, he succeeds.

The album kicks off with Waterlilies, a stunning stringed lament with weird yet wondrous beat boxing breaking in the background. Followed by the industrial Bellydance, Drone's diversity shines through. The big single, Hopskotch is the chosen release with good reason - poppy, catchy, beating apocalyptically and melodic, it is rhythmical, instant and stands out on its own. However, as the album progresses Drone almost lives up to his name with the same formulas cropping up again, repeated and churned out in different surroundings and arrangements. The reverb of Telephone and the moody Cutting Teeth use plucked guitar techniques, it pales in comparison to the album's opener, although the latter does display Phillip's vocal talents. For the majority of this album, those talents go largely ignored, shamelessly hidden away in place of thumping electronica and shadowed by the visual, organic instrumentation.

By the closing Plink Plink Plink, the album had picked up where it left off with yet more strange effects, melodic devices and sublime background vocals (very much part of the background) sitting alongside pulsating drum machine tempos. colourformoney is an experiment and a mainly superb one, showing one artists wonderful musical aspirations and idyllic imagery. Ignore the occasional blips, and Drone is very much musically innovative. This album is largely a testament to that, containing some interesting ideas that help to create an ambient texture. A good debut album with plenty to enjoy.

(released in 28th of January)