To the person who has slapped you in the face with the ?it all sounds the same? argument when they hear your fine wine drone collection: fucking listen to this 3 cd retrospective by Birchville Cat Motel and cry your eyes out at the sheer beauty and power of it. The good folk at Last Visible Dog have collected a series of Birchville Cat Motel live shows and created this massive slab of drone evolution courtesy of New Zealander Campbell Kneale, the sole inhabitant of the BC Motel.

There?s nothing irrelevant here, each of the three discs include at least one masjestic piece. The first disc opens with the domestic (1998, Wellington, NZ) performed, ?Reversing Spiral Galaxies?. It?s easily the smoothest, most sleek piece on the album. Not yet feeling like the arctic storms he?s been conjuring on his more recent pieces, more like looking through the window of and arctic shack, feeling cold but not actually feeling the icy streams across your face. The second piece on the first disc, ?Fairy Teeth?, dates from 2000 and the progress Kneale?s made is stunning. Starting with what sounds like a distorted sine wave, rapidly builds up to a thick reverberating drone teaming with startling energy and strength before really developing in a organic, moving mass of possessed effects buzzing like a monstrous herde of giant killerbees chasing you to the end of the world.

All the pieces on ?Curved Surface Destroyer? clock in around half an hour, each disc comprised of two performances. The second disc contains a performance from 20001 in what seems like the perfect spot for this Eastern tinged drone: the Senkoji temple in Osaka, Japan. As with ?Fairy Teeth?, ?Zenkoji (Mounted Archers Fortress)? brims with energy, this time provided by the scraping feedback of rusted guitarsnares and a low buzzing background drone. It?s eerie, crawling through the mud vibe is strangely beautiful and very much in sync with any mysterious temple vibe. The forty minutes of ?Copenhagen? are even more spellbinding. It?s layers of fizzing and sparkling bells reaching such a majestic, dense point, you?re waiting for it to explode in a zillion tiny shards of crystal and while that doesn?t really happen it eventually melts into a giant stream of megadrones. It?s gorgeous, like a pair of your favourite thighs around your waist.

Birchville Cat Motel?s evolution from the sleek first track to it?s last, furious finale, is a major treat to any drone fanatic. The last disc?s first track ?Drawn Towards Chanting Hordes? was performed during last year?s Instal festival in Glasgow and encompasses every BCM side heard on this compilation. It?s his most complete and life affirming effort on this exhaustive compilation. Waves of megadrone build up to form the aural equivalent of floating icemountains through frozen arctic oceans until an orchestra of highly pitched bells join the parade and the deep and beautiful sound of bagpipes surface. It all comes together as a giant mixture of an amped up Harmonia meets a downtuned, early incarnation of Pelt. It even boasts a psychrock superending with smashing drums and a mesmerizing bagpipe solo.

The feverous drone that starts off the album?s last track, ?Kanji Email Dreaming? keeps it?s steady pace throughout the whole duration of the track while sporadic washes of bellsounds rain down and the occasional snaredrum sports an irregular heartbeat. It?s not as fascinating as ?Drawn Towards Chanting Hordes? but compared to the album?s first two pieces it?s just so alive, like it?s a beast on it?s own. To stand out isn?t always easy but Kneale has made it his absolute strongest point. The drone universe wouldn?t be the same without this guy, you can bet your last dollar on it. 10/10 -- Joris Heemskerk (21 August, 2006)