Drone On Review – Landfall by Peter James

4th June 2012

I bought this as a download as the sound samples were so arresting I couldn’t wait for the CDR version (coming soon to Hypnos, as far as I know). Anyhow, “Landfall,” released in 2012 on Relaxed Machinery, is an album chock full of absolutely MAMMOTH drones of such quality that Mr. James belongs right up there with colleagues like Grassow, Oophoi, and Roach. There are just 3 tracks: Relocation (7:12), the album’s centerpiece Landfall (35:37), and Separation (17:14). The first two pieces are the kind of earthy and expansive droneworks with a decidedly shadowy feel but never veering into dark ambient realms. They are simply beautiful drones of a very high quality, and very ethereal. Lots of stratospheric layering which sounds incredible on headphones! The final piece, however, does take a cliff dive off the mountain into a dark ambient pool of industrial-tinged bleakness. Due to its slightly noisier character it could have been quite at home on a label like Cyclic Law. It is a good track bringing some balance to the “lighter” first two pieces. All in all, “Landfall” is an essential purchase for drone fans, and another strong release on the wonderful Relaxed Machinery label. This year I’ve “unearthed” quite a few excellent newcomers in my ambient archeological digging (see my other reviews for Beta Cloud and I’ve Lost), and Peter James is definitely on this list.

Source – http://www.hypnos.com/smf/index.php?topic=5053.0