Tecumseh: Avalanches, Inundations and a Whole Lot of Drone
One assumes Portland?s Tecumseh were thinking of their sound when they titled the record Avalanche and Inundation. Taken on that level, it?s about as fair an assessment as you?re going to get of what happens when you put the damn thing on; riff after churning riff gurgling up from the slowly boiling minimalist morass, igniting torturous drones and ringed out notes held so long the feedback literally screams.
SunnO))) is a lazy man?s comparison point, so we?ll go with that.
That Avalanche and Inundation is put on CD and LP by none other than Important Records should tell you that there are a considerable amount of people out there — some of whom wear tight pants — who will convince themselves they give a shit and praise Tecumseh as the most innovative band ever, ever, ever, or at least since whatever metal band Pitchfork told them to listen to last week. Don’t be fooled. The darkness they inhabit is cool but a long way from groundbreaking at this point.
That’s not to paint Tecumseh as hipster-come-lately fuckwads in the slightest. Hipsters listen to this shit; drone-heads make it in the woods of Oregon and suffer the fiscal consequences. Avalanche and Inundation is three tracks of punishing two-bass artistry rounded out by subtle electronic malevolence — inaccessibility taken to such near-ridiculousness that to call it a difficult listen is to completely understate it.
?Musical impossibility?? Maybe. Such hyperbole seems fitting for deathly drone this extreme.
Tags: Bands who title things after natural disasters, Drone, Portland
