Review of Gala Mill Album by The Drones

The Drones
Gala Mill
Album Review

The Drones Gala Mill Album

Fresh from their 2005 release 'Wait Long By The River' Gala Mill is the third album from the Australian based band The Drones. As the album title, and the raw production suggests "Gala Mill" was actually recorded in a haunted mill on an isolated 10,000-acre farm on Tasmania's east coast.

Firstly, this record has a very distinctively native feel, you can almost sense the lonely confounds of the Australian outback. The songs address all matter of subjects including history, politics and harrowing crimes, but beyond the lyrics the sluggish & brutal instrumental arrangements even portray a sense of agony. The truth is Gala Mill falls nothing short of noisy, abrupt, raw, dirty and painful.

There is a great sense of looseness within the drones playing style, which along with the glaringly obvious dark inclinations this record possesses will immediately rule the drones out of international pop stardom. (Not that they were ever aiming for that anyway) But if you enter Gala Mill with an open-mind, you might just end up transfixed by what it has to offer.

Colin Burrill


Site - http://www.thedrones.com.au

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