Drift "Exile" CD [CH-395]

Remastered reissue alongside the other Drift cassettes originally on Slaughter Productions. Mastered by Grant Richardson. A5 Digipak. Co-released with Total Black.

"Drift was a relatively short-lived project created by Gabriele Giuliani, better known through his notorious nom de plume Dead Body Love. Within the course of only a few short years, Drift released a dozen sought after releases on such legendary imprints as Slaughter, Old Europa Cafe, SSSM, Harmonie, and his own Less Than Zero, before fading behind the curtains.

Exile was not only the debut release by Drift, but also the beginning to a trilogy of cassettes released on Slaughter Productions. It is on these three albums one will experience Dark Ambient in its undistilled and raw form, dense and haunted. The furthest point from sound design or the dreaded "Cinematic Ambient" tag. This IS Ambient Industrial Noise.

The inspiration of Mick Harris's project Lull is immediate on this trilogy, in particular the "Cold Summer" and "Journey Through Underworlds" albums. However Gabriele pushes things even further. The textures more bombastic, the bass frequencies more suffocating, the reverbs trail longer. All sense of subtlety and refinement wiped away. Only the cold remains.

Exile in particular takes on a deep cavernous approach in sound, uninhabited, as if stillness had a voice and could be amplified. Despite the sense of inertia, the compositions are in constant motion and with focus. Only industrial moments of a track like "Dawn" provides a break to what is an otherwise desolate recording.

Although the Drift project would eventually incorporate synth as well as occasional beats and melodic elements on future releases. It is this trilogy that is the most fascinating. The sources are difficult to pinpoint. Were they field recordings? Film samples? Transmissions from the underworld? Whatever the origins, Exile serves as the perfect foreshadowing of what was to come on the follow-up releases The Beyond and Earthquake."

- Jim Mroz (Lussuria)