Not a lot here to distinguish this somewhat varied set of drones from the glut of other drone music available. This is beginning to become somewhat of a problem for artists interested in the form. On the one hand, this is indicative of saturation, of overload. On the other, even though I’m cloyed by the runoff, the phenomenon will hopefully bring out the best of those in further exploring this sort of composition.

“Shallow Water Blackout,” a vanity edition of 50 is nice, but it doesn’t really step away from the crowd and distinguish itself. There may be processes involved of which I’m not aware, but at this point in the game, I’m not even very interested in that. I’m interested in results. Unfortunately, I’ll probably not listen to this again, but rather keep an ear out for future releases to see where Vallera goes, to hear how he pushes his own boundaries and expectations of himself and his music.

These are essentially electronic drones focusing on wave shapes and their microtonal possibilities. 4/10 -- P. Somniferum (1 July, 2009)