kevin drumm: imperial distortion remastered edition

One of the most iconic ambient albums of the last decade, Imperial Distortion (2008) had an extremely limited vinyl pressing a couple of years ago which some argued never quite captured the full depth and frequency range of the original material due to the way in which it was mastered. This brand-new edition has long been planned by the label and has now been painstakingly remastered by Matt Colton, unveiling a filigree spectrum of microtonal flux and layers of atmosphere that were simply neglected with the previous edition. It's like surveying the same post-apocalyptic landscape without your gas mask on. Mego's genre-defining Sheer Hellish Miasma might have set Kevin Drumm up as America's premier exponent of grinding noise, but Imperial Distortion is an entirely different beast and confirmed Drumm as one of the most important figures in the American avant-garde. Unfolding over two hours of music, Imperial Distortion was the post-millennial answer to Aphex Twin's seminal Selected Ambient Works Vol. II. But where Richard D. James created a floating world tapped into his lucid dreams, Drumm takes us into the darkest recesses somewhere deep beneath the sea with bombs and guns tearing flesh and concrete overhead. The album offers an escape; the subtle oscillations and tones thick with guilt and pregnant with disdain for a palsied society, and on headphones leave you totally paralyzed. Make no mistake: Drumm is no newcomer to the scene and isn't jumping on or off any bandwagon. If you've never heard this incredible album before, you're in for quite a treat.