Music review: Rollercoaster Project - Drone 1

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Rollercoaster Project - Drone 1

Author: Paul Walters, MyVillage

Rollercoaster Project - Drone 1

Release date: Out now (from the website/ Bleep or itunes)

Genre: Demo: ambient/ experimental
Format: CD/ download
Our Rating: 2/5

‘Drone 1’ is a somehow triumphant sounding, repetitive (no really?) track released as a musical experiment under the name, ‘Rollercoaster Project’. The track, in layman’s terms, consists of a series of bleeps and synthesised noise that is joined slowly at first by seemingly unconnected sounds that gradually weave together into a single coherent track. The effect of this slow build is that the music at first seems somehow stark and clinical, but as it grows it becomes more welcoming and in a way, a little charming.

Appropriately enough, the track chugs alongside a sweeping video reel from the window of a train, mimicking the repetitive nature of the song, interspersed with meaningful hand gestures (!), which represent the slow build of the track from a series of monotonous bleeps into a snaking maze of sound. As stated in the genre header above however, the track is certainly experimental, and while it may be an interesting piece of music, I’m not so sure how it stands up on its own as something you’d listen to before a night out, although I’m sure that’s not the point. Instead, the track evokes a certain mood that is difficult to describe other than it seems more like a work of art than a piece of stand-alone music.

In this sense, ‘Drone 1’ works best when seen with its video, when you see the two working in tandem the track takes on a form of audio/ visual poetry; one could not independently exist without the other as a working piece of art, but together they go someway to creating something that seems much grander than just the sum of its parts.

www.dreamboatrecords.co.uk

Paul Walters, MyVillage, 23rd March