Fans of heavy drone music got a treat last night at the Empty Bottle. I caught some of Sun Splitter side project Dead Dragon Mountain and some of Winters of Osaka, and both worked up a decently doomy mood, but I spent most of my attention span—which can be tested during all-drone shows—on a solo set by Pelican/Chord guitarist Trevor de Brauw. It was one of the most fascinating solo guitar-and-loops performances I’ve seen, moving from crushing metal atmospherics to chiming shoegaze to a closing movement that used tremolo effects to unexpectedly—but not awkwardly—evoke electronic dance music.
While I was at the show, Andrew Barber at Fake Shore Drive tweeted that west-side rap legends Crucial Conflict had, with zero in the way of advance warning, dropped new material from what they’re calling a sequel to their breakthrough 1996 album, The Final Tic.