Trouble

Sound artist Kevin Drumm is known for blasts of animalistic noise, tape manipulation, and general deconstruction/destruction of sound, electronic, organic, and otherwise. The harshness of earlier albums gave way to a more ambient collection with 2008’s Imperial Distortion, though Drumm’s constant output still took excursions into horrific blasts of harshness. Trouble is an extreme statement in its own right, but one extremely subdued with almost whisper-like sounds of terror. Mastered so silently it’s practically inaudible at standard listening volume, the album consists of a single, nearly hour-long piece buried deep beneath itself. If the listener takes the bait and turns the volume all the way up, the still faint recording reveals sorrowful, ghostly dances of synth tones, heavy and wandering but never arriving at any point of climax. The experience of listening to Trouble takes intense focus and patience, and offers none of the immediate rewards of even less challenging entries in Drumm's catalog. Regardless of its invisibly impenetrable design, there is movement and power lurking in the album’s aggressively microscopic approach.