Kyle Bobby Dunn - Ways of Meaning (Desire Path Recordings)
At this point, there is not much more that can be said about Kyle Bobby Dunn’s album Ways of Meaning. Google the album and you’ll see the considerable amount of digital ink that was spilled across the internet about the Ontario native’s drone album since it was released earlier this year by Buffalo label Desire Path Recordings.
Here’s a sample:
Anti-Gravity Bunny–which cited Ways of Meaning as the third best drone album of 2011–said it was the “most delicate bliss I’ve ever experienced. 100% shining purity.”
Consequence of Sound described the album’s “sweet fragility,” while notoriously hard-to-please Pitchfork celebrated it as drone music “with the gravity turned off.”
Dusted Magazine explained that the album served as a pleasant “reminder to slow your roll’ and even NPR’s All Songs Considered (not exactly the go-to source for drone music) exulted the album for its “shimmering brilliance.”
We could continue this list indefinitely, but let’s instead see what the local/regional press in Buffalo and the Upstate region had to say about KBD’s album. After all, this universally acclaimed release was brought forth into the world by Desire Path Recordings, a young micro-label out of Buffalo. Surely, the same label that Lend Me Your Ears declared as “masterful” and the ‘Best New Label of 2011′ earned a write up or two from the local music literati, right?
Well, actually, no.
Save for the blog you are currently reading, not a peep was muttered ’round these parts regarding one of the most celebrated albums of the year that happened to be made in our own backyard. The Upstate Soundscape, on the other hand, did a whole feature on Desire Path which you can read here along with a radio interview that you can listen to here.
Anyway, regardless of who did cover it and who didn’t cover it. . .Ways of Meaning is a beautiful album and you should hear it. End of story.
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Review by Cameron Alexander
