Biography
Emerging from Chicago’s improvised music community in the 1990s, Kevin Drumm first drew notice through his inventive tabletop guitar methods. Once he broadened his setup to encompass laptop computers and analog synthesizers, he ranked among the most prominent American noise practitioners, issuing recordings on Mego, Hanson, Hospital Productions, and additional imprints. His output has traversed extremes from unrelenting harsh noise to nearly silent drone while absorbing influences from heavy metal and free jazz.
Born and raised in South Holland, Illinois, Drumm performed in several rock bands before moving to Chicago in 1991 to take a position at the city’s Board of Trade. He soon began prepared-guitar experiments, attaching items such as magnets, binder clips, chains, a violin bow, and even toenail clippers to transform the instrument’s tone. Over time he connected with figures in Chicago’s expanding improv circle, among them Jim O’Rourke—appearing together in Brise-Glace and on Gastr del Sol’s Upgrade and Afterlife—and Ken Vandermark, with whom he recorded on the reedist’s Standards. Drumm’s self-titled solo debut arrived in late 1997 on Perdition Plastics. The following year brought the split releases Folie à Deux and Duo with Japanese guitarist Taku Sugimoto. Second appeared as a solo album in 1999, and Drumm joined Werner Dafeldecker, Christof Kurzmann, Fennesz, O’Rourke, and Martin Siewert on a collaborative set issued by the Austrian label Charhizma. Early in 2000, O’Rourke’s Moikai imprint released Drumm’s Comedy, after which further collaborations arose with Martin Tétreault, Axel Dörner, and Ralf Wehowsky.
A split EP with Pita (Peter Rehberg) surfaced in 2001. The next year Drumm debuted on Rehberg’s Mego label with the monumental Sheer Hellish Miasma, an album that earned uncommon attention for a noise release by placing on Pitchfork’s Top 50 Albums of the Year list. By year’s end he had also issued split or collaborative recordings with Aaron Dilloway, Lasse Marhaug, Leif Elggren, and Mats Gustafsson. The solo album Land of Lurches came out on Dilloway’s Hanson label in 2003. Additional joint projects followed, including Out Trios, Vol. 2 with Jeff Parker and Michael Zerang, Mort Aux Vache with Dan Burke (Illusion of Safety), and Eruption with Weasel Walter and Fred Lonberg-Holm. Continuing in the vein of Sheer Hellish Miasma, Impish Tyrant appeared on cassette in 2004 and was later reissued on CD. In 2005 Kitty Play Records released a split LP with 2673.
Drumm teamed with Prurient in 2007 for All Are Guests in the House of the Lord on Hospital Productions and produced Gauntlet with Daniel Menche for Editions Mego, the successor to Mego. His solo cassette Purge came out on iDEAL Recordings and was subsequently reissued on CD. Several albums of dark drone followed on Hospital, among them the double-CD Imperial Distortion and the sparse single-track Imperial Horizon. The year 2010 yielded collaborations with John Wiese and Tom Smith as well as the five-CD box set Necro Acoustic. Drumm then issued a vast quantity of self-released cassettes and CD-Rs, yet more widely distributed titles appeared on Editions Mego (Relief), Bocian Records (Crowded), and Pan (Venexia, recorded with Mika Vainio, Dörner, and Lucio Capece). Hospital released the double-CD drone album Tannenbaum in 2013.
Editions Mego issued Trouble in 2014, a single 54-minute piece of extremely quiet drone. Handmade Birds put out the live CD Wrong Intersection, while Erstwhile Records released the double-CD collaboration The Abyss with Jason Lescalleet. The pair also recorded Busman’s Holiday, issued by Erstwhile the following year. In 2016 the French label Sonoris released Elapsed Time, a six-CD box set of mostly unreleased material.
Born and raised in South Holland, Illinois, Drumm performed in several rock bands before moving to Chicago in 1991 to take a position at the city’s Board of Trade. He soon began prepared-guitar experiments, attaching items such as magnets, binder clips, chains, a violin bow, and even toenail clippers to transform the instrument’s tone. Over time he connected with figures in Chicago’s expanding improv circle, among them Jim O’Rourke—appearing together in Brise-Glace and on Gastr del Sol’s Upgrade and Afterlife—and Ken Vandermark, with whom he recorded on the reedist’s Standards. Drumm’s self-titled solo debut arrived in late 1997 on Perdition Plastics. The following year brought the split releases Folie à Deux and Duo with Japanese guitarist Taku Sugimoto. Second appeared as a solo album in 1999, and Drumm joined Werner Dafeldecker, Christof Kurzmann, Fennesz, O’Rourke, and Martin Siewert on a collaborative set issued by the Austrian label Charhizma. Early in 2000, O’Rourke’s Moikai imprint released Drumm’s Comedy, after which further collaborations arose with Martin Tétreault, Axel Dörner, and Ralf Wehowsky.
A split EP with Pita (Peter Rehberg) surfaced in 2001. The next year Drumm debuted on Rehberg’s Mego label with the monumental Sheer Hellish Miasma, an album that earned uncommon attention for a noise release by placing on Pitchfork’s Top 50 Albums of the Year list. By year’s end he had also issued split or collaborative recordings with Aaron Dilloway, Lasse Marhaug, Leif Elggren, and Mats Gustafsson. The solo album Land of Lurches came out on Dilloway’s Hanson label in 2003. Additional joint projects followed, including Out Trios, Vol. 2 with Jeff Parker and Michael Zerang, Mort Aux Vache with Dan Burke (Illusion of Safety), and Eruption with Weasel Walter and Fred Lonberg-Holm. Continuing in the vein of Sheer Hellish Miasma, Impish Tyrant appeared on cassette in 2004 and was later reissued on CD. In 2005 Kitty Play Records released a split LP with 2673.
Drumm teamed with Prurient in 2007 for All Are Guests in the House of the Lord on Hospital Productions and produced Gauntlet with Daniel Menche for Editions Mego, the successor to Mego. His solo cassette Purge came out on iDEAL Recordings and was subsequently reissued on CD. Several albums of dark drone followed on Hospital, among them the double-CD Imperial Distortion and the sparse single-track Imperial Horizon. The year 2010 yielded collaborations with John Wiese and Tom Smith as well as the five-CD box set Necro Acoustic. Drumm then issued a vast quantity of self-released cassettes and CD-Rs, yet more widely distributed titles appeared on Editions Mego (Relief), Bocian Records (Crowded), and Pan (Venexia, recorded with Mika Vainio, Dörner, and Lucio Capece). Hospital released the double-CD drone album Tannenbaum in 2013.
Editions Mego issued Trouble in 2014, a single 54-minute piece of extremely quiet drone. Handmade Birds put out the live CD Wrong Intersection, while Erstwhile Records released the double-CD collaboration The Abyss with Jason Lescalleet. The pair also recorded Busman’s Holiday, issued by Erstwhile the following year. In 2016 the French label Sonoris released Elapsed Time, a six-CD box set of mostly unreleased material.
Albums
