Reviews list for Author & Punisher - Drone Machines (2010)

This is not an album you listen to to get pumped. That being said, Author and Punisher is a band that I will say I have seen live, and far prefer in a live setting. I saw Tristan several years ago now in a pretty small and intimate venue setting and quite enjoyed the whole set, I was enraptured by the music as in a live setting this type of droning music is able to fully encapsulate your senses and you are able to see Tristan's wizardry with his self created  instrumentation tools on stage.  Seriously, if you ever get the chance, go check it out. That said, a lot of that charm is lost in a recording and while I find this to be above average drone and nice to listen to as I took a lie back and relaxed, many of the pieces on the album do not stand out to me. The introduction piece isn't catching, and really, after O'er Skies, which I found to be the most singularly memerable of the individual tracks,  the instrumentals are fine. Tristan does amazing things with this set up but honestly, go find yourself a video recording of him play or better yet, if you can catch a live show . If you're looking for some decent background music or something to relax to then this is a pretty good number, but in my opinion knowing what this music can sound like, this album feels a bit lackluster to really get me o'er the precipice.

This was the first of his releases that I recall saw the buzz around Tristan Shone first starting to reach the "What Are You Listening To Now" threads on the various metal forums I frequented at the time.  This and the follow up Ursus Americanus had certainly seen enough cursory glances from me on Bandcamp to warrant at least a try of the music, but somehow I never got around to it.  It wasn't until 2018's Beastland that I finally sampled some of Shone's industrial majesty, being impressed enough to retain it in my stream subscription for occasional replay.  As with most artists, I rarely start at the beginning of the discography (and I haven't even achieved that yet here with this review - there's at least a couple of albums before this one for me to catch up with) preferring to just dip in here and there and build up my experience of an artist gradually.

I sensed promise in the Author & Punisher back-catalgoue for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, the guy makes his own triggers, controllers and instruments himself from raw materials.  I find this gives the music some primitive allure.  Kind of like when as a kid you'd make drum kits out of oil drums and upturned boxes, only this is obviously light years ahead in terms of technical knowledge to engineer such machines to produce recorded output.  The second hint of hope I had for Shone and his music is the fact that it managed to bridge the gap between industrial, mechanised torture and actual, discernable songs.  Although the title of the album kind of gives away the content to some degree, this is not mindless droning or racket for racket-making's sake, it is thought out structures that cross over into the realms of drone metal just as easily as industrial metal also.  Lust for Scales for example is like a monstrous, robotic Tony Iommi riffing around the studio with the expected familiar pummeling intensity.

On the whole, Drone Machines works.  It lacks some range in terms of variety of its own varied niche in the world of music and although I acknowledge the fact that there are songs stood as structures, they don't all feel like they were bottomed out as complete ideas before being committed to tape.  Tracks such as Beginning of End are just filler unfortunately and push the patience levels in me as a listener to the point of reaching for the skip button.  But, whilst it needs a trim in a couple of places, album number three from San Diego's number one noise terrorist still has lots of legs to hold the attention for the record duration.  Its most clever trait perhaps is the ability for it to generate so much power both in terms of sound and density at the same time.  It truly "fills" your ears and your head at times, starting from some bone-jarring drone at the base of your neck that expands into auditory assault by intelligent use of rhythm and percussion alongside the more experimental noise aspects also deployed.  Check out Blue Flame for a great example of this balance and smart application of opposing musical fare.

I might be a deacde late, but I am glad I got here in the end.