The Dead Refrain - "The Red Remains" (2011)

Fellow Pittsburgh musician/artist, Joe Mruk, has followed up his killer EP, The Wallpaper Voyage, with another homey yet quality EP, The Red Remains. Hailing from Arizona, Mruk brings a distinct vintage western feel to the table of the saloon. Lyrics are real as whiskey on a fire: "Well she don't believe in God, but she still needs someone to answer to the folks put in their caskets, to the carnage and the cancer." Mruk has a knack for keeping songs non-trite by utilizing unexpected chord changes. From spur-stompin' rhythms to sentimental finger picking selections, the instrumentation is broad, the song-writing: personal and aspiring. Beware Bon Iver, The Dead Refrain is on his way.

The Red Remains

Windy & Carl / Amp - "Split" (1997)

Windy & Carl's most memorable song is on this little split. "Near And Far" is lovely and ethereal as Windy's breathy whispering voice hums over warm, vibrating guitar drones. Amp's side is also superb and passes by simply and beautifully and paced like a cloudy spring day. Truly a gem of a release and relatively unknown, this is very highly recommended.

Split

Craig Colorusso - "Sun Boxes" (2011)

Bliss.
The blissful sun shimmers.
Sunshine shimmers glints blissfully overhead.
All-encompassing rays of sunlight glimmer.
Shards of ice melt in a tub of warm sound.
Crickets,
Chirping in fields of cloud-parted sky.
Sweating soothing textures,
Nature hums a bright tune.
Blessing hearers,
O' blissful whistle.

I've attempted to emulate the vibe of Sun Boxes in the poem above. When sunlight reaches the receptive solar panels, it sets off a varying guitar note loop in each of twenty boxes, comprising a Bb chord. A splendid coalescing of nature and technology, Sun Boxes gives back to the inspiration of natural energy, space and time. From the beach, to the frozen pond and grassy field (the latter two of which you will hear), different terrains contribute their own personality to each recording. The boxes coincide with habitats galore -- allowing insects and vegetation (or whoever happens to pass through) to get a different sensation of the center of our solar system. Imagine the Sun strumming a guitar ever-so-gently with its heat-waves... what is more relaxing than hearing the same warmth that hugs your skin on a clear day, resonate through speakers in song? So thanks, Craig, for this breath of fresh sound. And no, Temptations, you don't have sunshine on a cloudy day... when the sun shines through, we have cleverly constructed drone.

Download, transfer to a portable player, then traverse to a distant land-form.

Koen Holtkamp - "Field Rituals" (2008)

Field Rituals is an emotion-wrenching offering from sound artist Koen Holtkamp -- mixing field recordings and divine drones to create a reflective soundtrack of everyday life. Superbly mixed, the sound quality is as fresh as the brisk dew on a blade of grass. There is quite the array of instrumentation, lulling vocals included, and the listener is teleported into a variety of aural settings. All blissfully blended to perfection.

Inquire within.

Earth - "Earth 2 - Special Low Frequency Version" (1993)

If you consider yourself a drone fan whatsoever and do not own this yet, then you need to immediately stop calling yourself a drone fan. Respect your elders, Earth show what drone is truly about on this legendary album that is the definition of backbreaking heaviness. The cover art paints a scene truly indicative of what the recording represents: a massive slab of flat, unmoving grassland earth set among a monolithic, cloudless blue sky, a tiny encampment nestled in the corner practically unnoticeable with a quick glance. Similarly, Earth's music is gigantic; it lurches and drags and hangs in the air, overstaying its welcome. It is unmoving, yet relentlessly heavy. The sheer weight of this classic is tremendously obvious -- let it weigh on your fucking soul.

Alas, our bodies will go back to the ground one day, nay... they will go back to the E A R T H!

Talkingmakesnosense / Death Register - "Split" (2010)

It is barely even there; watch it float away /// grab it before it slips between your fingers --

More Funeral Doom

Evoken - "Antithesis Of Light" (2005)

Evoken -- American -- Funeral doom/death in the vein of Disembowelment

Antithesis Of Light

Longing For Dawn - "Between Elation And Despair" (2009)
Longing For Dawn -- Canadian -- Funeral doom mingling with brooding dark ambient

Between Elation And Despair

Skepticism - "Stormcrowfleet" (1995)

Skepticism -- Finnish -- Savage old-school funeral doom metal

Stormcrowfleet

Absum - "Purgatoire 2007-2009" (2010)

Absum -- American -- Funeral doom played in a punishing black metal style

Purgatoire 2007-2009