The Drones are an Australian band who had a couple of albums out on ATP Recordings. They played the "Ten Years" ATP festival but I didn't see them in the end - that weekend had far too many great bands in a very short amount of time; lots were missed. However, I think when I bought this all I knew was what was on the description Spillers had added to the sleeve - all I remember was that the record was on ATP and that they were Australian. Also, I'm a sucker for a picture disc, even if the picture isn't all that interesting. Plus, it was the tail end of the Tuesday-record-from-Spillers year, so it didn't take much for a record to end up in my collection.
The record itself is a strange one. The Minotaur is a song from their most recent (at the time) album, Havilah. But then so is the second (and slightly annoying) song, Nail it Down. They're followed by two songs from their 2005 album, Wait Long by the River..., and then two songs from their 2006 album, Gala Mill, neatly covering all the albums that ATP had helped release in countries outside Australia (and all the albums easily found in this hemisphere). It's quite clear that they wanted the band to get some more traction in the UK and a cheap compilation is a classic way to do it.
The Minotaur is a strong, catchy song and a pretty fine example of what the band sound like - interesting guitars, strained vocals and a huge hook in the chorus. Nail it Down, as I mentioned, is a really annoying song and quite an unfortunate way to follow on from The Minotaur (and an even stranger way to open the album Havilah). Perhaps the intention was to show the different sides of the band, but as the listener I'd have been much more excited if the second Drones song I heard was a crazy rocker like the first one; Baby^2 would have been a much better follow-up. Most of the b-side is dedicated to the lengthy album-closer Sixteen Straws which tells the story of some Catholic convict workers drawing straws to decide who would kill whom (and thus avoiding damnation from suicide). It's a bleak history lesson in song-form. Jezebel is the other song from Gala Mill and a strong opener to that album. If I were choosing their strongest songs from that album, I might have swapped Jezebel for the incredible I'm Here Now, which is by far my favourite song of theirs. Perhaps they wanted to save that treat for the album.
I assumed that nothing much had happened with the band in the last 8 years or so, but looking on Discogs they've had a couple of albums since Havilah. I figured since ATP stopped releasing their albums that they'd broken up or disappeared, but it seems not. Perhaps ATP decided to cut their loses in attempting a UK break-through. Their three ATP released albums were readily available in the second-hand stores of London and I gradually picked up all three over a couple of years on cd. Each one had some huge songs and some others that did less for me. I enjoyed all of them, particularly Gala Mill (strangely, Wait Long by the River... was billed as the "classic", or at least that's what I assumed since it was the one the band would play in full at ATP festivals).
I like The Drones but I had definitely forgotten about them. I might make some small efforts to get their other albums, although I'm not sure I'm willing to import them myself.
Format: 12" picture disc, insert
Tracks: 6
Cost: £8.50 new
Bought: Spillers Records
When: 07/10/08
Colour: Picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no
