For a while I thought I might use this book as a reference. So Harry and I disagree on a few things. Who cares? I can just ignore his wittering and explore the numerous musicians he mentions myself, right? But then I realised - if he's making such mistakes and such dumbfounding assertions about stuff I am familiar with, then who knows what sort of boneheaded things he's saying about stuff I'm not so familiar with? At the same time it feels very strange that a book that purports to be about drone music makes no mention of any of the ambient drone scene: major figures such as Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Natural Snow Buildings, Lustmord, Stars of the Lid etc don't get mentioned at all. The beginning and end of this book are quite good. In the beginning, he writes about the role of the drone in spiritual ritual, ancient rites, attempts to reach some sort of transcendence in different cultures (although one could argue that he should have noted the difference in the acoustic qualities of a Maltese underground burial chamber when it was used as such and hence full of dead bodies and its empty state today). The last part includes bands such as (early) Earth and Sunn O))) who have the drone at the very center of their general sound; he ventures into ambient (Eno, Radique, Davachi) and hives readers a solid list of music to experience. However, everything in between is quite random. That is mostly the case because Sword tries very hard to find any form of drone or “undertow” in the music/ bands that he likes and he often finds it even though it’s not really there or at least doesn’t play an important role in the sound of a particular artist / band. He often conflates repetition or noise with drone even though in the beginning, he explains that “drone” basically means “sustain” just to ignore this definition in the chapters that follow. An inspired and intuitive navigation of the drone continuum, MONOLITHIC UNDERTOW maps the heavy underground with a compass firmly set to new and enlightening psychedelic truths

the author talks about many well-known bands and artists (The Beatles, John Coltrane, Sonic Youth, …) in whose songs he finds even a hint of drone and it is especially in this middle part of the book that Sword seems to forget what he wanted to focus on…there is not much talk about pure drone music in this part of the book. I think the problem of this book lies in what is presented and what it was marketed to be and what it actually is. So if you are interested in the drone genre, this book will most likely be a disappointment because you know most of the things in here already and will probably shake your head while reading about all the bands that - according to Sword - produce monolithic undertows. The irony is that in early music, the drone wasn’t just mainstream, it was music. “If you put a hole in the side of a mammoth tusk, it produces the most amazingly intense drone,” archaeo-musicologist Barnaby Brown says. While western music elaborated into polyphony and counterpoint, the drone has been a constant in cultures worldwide. Sword mostly passes over its place in folk traditions – to include them would have made for a much bigger book – but, as he attests, the range of the drone’s expressiveness as used by traditions as varied as the Gyoto monks of Tibet, Gnawa music of Morocco, and the Sardinian triple-pipe launeddas – an instrument so closely related to the ancient aulos its survival seems miraculous – speaks to a kind of cultural significance that is deeper than culture. In the beginning, he highlights that he doesn’t want to write a history of drone music, but a book that “explores the viscous slipstream - drone, doom and beyond - and claims the sounds uncovered, which hinge on hypnotic power and close physical presence, as no less radical.” He goes on to say that Monolith Undertow “follows an outer stellar orbit of sounds underpinned by the drone.” And I would argue that the book falls short of this goal except for the first and last chapters. For example, Sword makes a big point of the of the religious and/or spiritual roots of droning sounds, but the idea is never really explored beyond the immediate manifestation of the drone in music. It's never really explored why the drone has had such a deep religious meaning for millennia. Nor is it explored what it means to the drone once it leaves the spiritual realm and settles in the secular.A shorter chapter that follows on from the avant-garde exploration. Sword charts the origins and development of The Velvet Underground and the drones influence on the band. Lou Reed’s solo career post Velvet is briefly covered as well. TVU are a great band, I don’t need to tell you that but an underrated aspect of their sound is the drone and Sword highlights that brilliantly. It was nice to get so much affirmation that there's a wider world of drones. Too often I have thought of "drone" as simply Eliane Radigue near-stasis, and categorizing so much else as "sort of drone," including my own work.... like my music has drones but is not drone. I'm glad to discard that distinction. Drones can replace traditional chords and harmony as an axis for other parts to rotate around, or can underpin rhythm while still managing to bend the perception of time and progression.

Monolithic Undertow: In Search of Sonic Oblivion (2020) is not a run of the mill music book. Harry Sword explores how the drone, or drone music, has a long and rich history. From early primitive instruments through sacred chants and onward into modern music, he finds evidence everywhere. This exploration embraces The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, Alice Coltrane, Sun 0))), the Stooges, Sonic Youth, the Master Musicians of Joujouka, amongst many more. The first half of the book is the strongest. I found his discussion of the influence of Moroccan and Indian music (especially Ravi Shankar) on 1960s Western music especially compelling. It is in these earlier chapters where Sword is outside his area of expertise, and at times he lets himself down, but he paints a clear picture of why and how the music evolved the way it did. In some ways this feels intuitive, “like you’ve heard something you’ve never heard before, but you’ve always known,” Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth tells Sword. Perhaps it is. Hearing begins in the womb at around twenty weeks; those first oceanic, immersive aural experiences are surprisingly loud – around 88 decibels, the level of a food processor, Sword says. White noise is demonstrably comforting for babies and young children, in particular. It’s not hard to understand why. Harry Sword has created a very nice, chronological overview of the drone and its place in music. I can almost guarantee that you will hear about bands, artists and projects that you never knew existed. And you will almost certainly discover bands you'll really like.

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In 1977 Sniffin' Glue verbalised the musical zeitgeist with their infamous 'this is a chord; this is another; now form a band' illustration. The drone requires neither chord nor band, representing - via its infinite pliability and accessibility - the ultimate folk music: a potent audio tool of personal liberation. Immersion in hypnotic and repetitive sounds allows us to step outside of ourselves, be it chant, a 120dB beasting from Sunn O))), standing front of the system as Jah Shaka drops a fresh dub or going full headphone immersion with Hawkwind. These experiences are akin to an audio portal - a sound Tardis to silence the hum and fizz of the unceasing inner voice. The drone exists outside of us, but also - paradoxically - within us all; an aural expression of a universal hum we can only hope to fleetingly channel... An entertaining tour through musical history which effectively culminates in the drone/doom of Sunn O))), Sleep, Electric Wizard, etc. The introduction mentions that the book was originally intended to be a history of doom metal and I think it's helpful to still think of it in these terms because otherwise the choices made about what to include/exclude might seem odd. Without that frame in mind, it can feel like the focus on drone has been forgotten at some points so that the author can write about whatever music they particularly like (e.g. the sections about punk). I recently read this and it definitely changed what I was doing. For the last few years I've had two modes of operation: monolithic ( ), wall of sound pieces with hardly any movement at all -- and then semi-endurance performances, such as this piece Neptune I've been working on that's performed over the 4 hours and change it takes to get there at light speed. Strangely enough this book got me thinking in much shorter terms, as in how short can I get and still be classified as drone, and has shaken a lot of other stuff loose. Excellent read. No hit or miss on this one. Diving from it into The Great Animal Orchestra by Bernie Klause has been really interesting.