(Photo by Lena Shkoda) Out 31 May on Dais Records is the brand new album from Scottish experimental/electronic musician Drew McDowall. “A Thread, Silvered and Trembling” will be out on vinyl and digitally. A North America tour is also planned which starts at Le Poisson Rouge on the album’s release date.

Listen to first track “Out of Strength comes Sweetness”.

McDowall’s lifelong interest in an elegiac solo bagpipe style called pibroch (ceòl mòr in Gaelic) has been an inspiration for much of his previous work (including Coil’s legendary “Time Machines”). His latest work, “A Thread, Silvered and Trembling”, both incorporates and transforms these elements via exploratory electronic processing, weaving an electro-acoustic tapestry of strings, shudders, voids, and voices. The album was Co-produced with engineer Randall Dunn at Circular Ruin Studios in Brooklyn.

The album features collaborations and instrumentation from harpist Marilu Donovan (LEYA), French Horn player Eric Davis (David Byrne & St. Vincent, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings) and more.

Drew McDowall tour dates

• 31 May – Le Poisson Rouge, NY
• 6 June – Velvet Underground, Toronto ON
• 15 June – Vera Project, Seattle WA
• 16 June – Holocene, Portland OR
• 19 June – Lodge Room, Los Angeles CA

About Drew McDowall

Drew McDowall is a composer and musician hailing from Scotland and now based in New York City. He was a pivotal member of Coil in the 1990s, playing a crucial role in some of their most esteemed works. McDowall’s artistry extends beyond his solo endeavors; he also collaborated with a wide range of artists including Kali Malone, Caterina Barbieri, Robert Aki Aubrey Lowe, Hiro Kone, Varg, Puce Mary, Shapednoise, and Rabit.

McDowall’s musical journey began in 1978 with the formation of the art-punk trio Poems, alongside his then-wife, Rose McDowall. The 1980s saw him as a member of Psychic TV. However, it was in the 1990s, particularly starting in 1994, when he regularly performed with and officially joined Coil, marking a period of significant output.

Relocating to New York in the early 2000s, McDowall co-founded Compound Eye with Tres Warren of Psychic Ills. His focus shifted towards solo projects in 2012, leading to the release of four albums under his own name and tours across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. In 2018, he began touring a live AV reinterpretation of Coil’s seminal drone work, “Time Machines”, at festivals worldwide.

In May 2023, Dais Records celebrated McDowall’s expansive career with “Lamina”, a 6 CD retrospective box set showcasing his impactful contributions to music.

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Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Genre/Influences: Experimental, industrial, dark-ambient.

Background/Info: Frederikke Hoffmeier is involved with multiple projects, but Puce Mary is for sure her main sonic experiment. Most of her work has been released on the Danish label Posh Isolation, but for her newest work she joined hands with the Berlin based company Pan. The album is also available as vinyl format.

Content: The opening cut “Dissolve” clearly reveals the essence and influences of this work. Puce Mary is collecting sounds and noises, which are next manipulated to obtain a mix of industrial- and experimental music with an explicit noise approach. The songs are heavy and dark, sometimes mixed with a few spoken word  samplings.

+ + + : “The Drought” is a great production in a rather ‘extreme’ music genre. I think there’s a next generation of industrial- and noise artists operating and Puce Mary is just part of them. I like the heavy sound treatments creating a truly attempt for the tympana. This album also sounds diversified revealing a great sonic canvas.

– – – : This album is cool, but I’m missing a few more highlights. I think that’s precisely what this artist needs to gain a wider recognition.

Conclusion: It really is an art transforming sounds and noises into something new, but Puce Mary clearly has a personal approach in this exercise.

Best songs: “Red Desert”, “A Feast Before The Drought”.

Rate: (6½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/pucemarypucemary 

Label: https://as.p–a–n.org / www.facebook.com/pan.hq

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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