Download the Tulsa Drone press kit here (PDF format).

TULSA DRONE
Friday, April 23
Tokyo Rose, Charlottesville

"The name "Tulsa Drone" tempts one to speculate on the sound: static, subtle, expansive atmospherics, perhaps a touch of the "cinematic" -- a knee-jerk term you'd swear is mandatory in descriptions of post-rock music. The band Tulsa Drone, while loosely part of said genre, invites a different set of adjectives. Their sonic palette is not entirely unfamiliar: clean, rich, tastefully sparse guitar; fluid, cyclic bass; agile, nuanced, solid drumming.

However, the Richmond-based instrumental four-piece's sound avoids the expected vast horizons and instead conjures sensations of claustrophobia. Oblique but intuitive chord changes anchor songs without centers, and become repeating chord cycles whose tension derives not from the urge for the chords to resolve but from the friction between one chord and the next. Much like Public Image Ltd.'s "Poptones," Tulsa Drone's best pieces use constantly modulating harmonic tension to imply infinity, sequences of chords burrowing downward into oblivion.

Live, the members of Tulsa Drone displayed remarkable restraint and skill. Peter Neff's hammered dulcimer -- a large, resonant, stringed percussion instrument scarcely encountered in a rock context -- occupied half the stage; but, far from seeming ostentatious or gimmicky, its timbre melded so smoothly with that of the guitar as to sound at times like a single instrument. Guitarist Erik Grotz wrapped slinky, effects-kissed phrases around bassist Scott Hudgins and drummer Jim Thomson's fluid churn, itself a far cry from the stiff literalism of many post-rock rhythm sections.

Tulsa Drone prove what many bands of their ilk forget: First, that non-personality-driven music can still be dynamic and still have life; and secondly, that breaking boundaries of form is not the sole benchmark of innovation. While their sound and sensibility is far from radical, they find ways to make their music feel different rather than just sound different. With so many paths already explored, "shocking" approaches invite little more than a shrug. Tulsa Drone know better."
— Clarke Boehling, C-Ville Weekly, May 4-10, 2004

"One of the challenges posed by creators of moody instrumental music is that their work often requires multiple listens in particular settings in order to be fully appreciated. To its significant credit, Tulsa Drone poses no such obstacle. With No Wake, the quartet from Richmond, Virginia has conceived and recorded a spectacular debut album that registers with listeners emotionally and mentally from the first second to the last. The sounds of No Wake are so evocative and quietly menacing that anyone with a conscience or a memory will remain awake and alert to the sentiments and images running through his or her head as Tulsa Drone plays.

Tulsa Drone’s art work for its debut album, No Wake, is stark; a storm brews, perhaps even a tornado, and in the middle of the woods, a solitary house holds the light. Without overanalyzing the minds of the band members, this visual imagery was probably chosen specifically to parallel the music on No Wake: dark, troubling, reflective, provocative, and direct, perhaps even accusatory, but there is hope. I can count on one hand the number of albums to which I’ve listened that have been as emotionally engaging, beautiful, and rewarding as No Wake. Even including Tulsa Drone’s debut, I still have fingers left on the hand to add more selections. No Wake is a magnificently conceived and performed work. Although 2005 is eight months away, I would be stunned to find a better record in 2004. No Wake is an important album and the best of 2004."
— Sahar, Delusions of Adequacy Pick of the Week 4-19-04 and Album of the Year (Sarah 2004)

"The music is so impressively evocative, so powerfully illustrative, that it leaps directly from your ears to your imagination. It takes you away almost as soon as you begin listening to it. It's been far too long since we've had this kind of music around, and we're glad it's back, hopefully to take us in entirely new directions."
— Andrew Womack, The Morning News.com (Album of the Week)

"Tulsa Drone has created a masterful CD of hushed splendor ... A perfect complement to long road trips or through a city's ripped underbelly..."
— C. Maynard Bopst, Style Weekly

"Richmond, Virginia's Tulsa Drone is a rhythmic unit of guitar, bass, and drums augmented by the shimmering sounds of hammered dulcimer. Their debut full-length "No Wake" is a stirring instrumental journey, equally mad and miraculous, built upon tight, steady grooves and slow dances.

Like audio postcards from remote places, the outback soundtracks of "No Wake" convey a sensation of big-skied expansion and isolation. But the sound of Tulsa Drone also takes one deeply inward, the rhythms and reverberations of which contain a warmth that also touches the heart.

Their debut gets off to a solid start, beginning mightily with "chiaroscuro," a spine-tingling opener with dual melodies both plucked and hammered. The second track, "vendetta," is a steady-groover that holds fast to its tension, then descends into sliding guitar licks. The dimly lit mood is maintained on "honcho toro," but the tempo is reduced to a slow, simmering waltz, and the tension is cut with an accompanying cornet.

The sound of brass returns on "the devil changes colors" - an almost-ambient number that finds the horn meditating on the rhythmic ripples of the hammered strings of the dulcimer. "No Wake" is a unique recording, alternately rocking and relaxed, and is likely to appeal to a cross-section of music lovers, including those with a penchant for wearing black nail polish and listening to old 4AD records, as well as those whose heart skips a beat with every twang of Chris Isaak's guitar. Just lovely."
— John Rickman, Free Williamsburg

"Grotz and Neff leave the riffs and geographical referencing behind and coax swelling chords of discordant sound from their strings. That Tulsa Drone moves so easily between catchy instrumentals and dark soundscapes suggests a flexibility that bodes well for the band's future. In the meantime, "No Wake" has a lot to savor."
— Mark Richardson, C-Ville Weekly

"...Their music could provide the soundtrack for any number of scenarios, driving through the Tennessee hills or lying awake at 4 a.m., unable to sleep. "I suppose our influences are Southern in nature," Grotz muses, "But they take on weird shifts..." Italian folk songs, dirges, Eno loops, ambient scores ... all assume a metallic resonance when performed. "There are some beautiful tones," says Neff, "but there's always that undercurrent of menace."..."
— Kate Bredimus, Richmond.com

"Richmond, Virgina should be proud, they've got in their grips one of the finer instrumental post-rock bands to surface in the wake of Godspeed's huge success. While having no direct link to the Montreal group that have stirred up the atmospheric bone in indie rockers all across the world, they do posses the same sort of cathartic vibe and delicate instrumentation. On their newest release, and what I believe to be their debut, No Wake, this East Coast four-piece group together sounds of the open range with the eerie twists of the mighty dulcimer. This latter fact heavily weighs in on the bands sound throughout the entirety of the disc, giving them a rustic feel akin to fellow East Coast up-and-comers The Occasion. They also properly balance their folkish tendencies with more droning ambient moments, as made evident on the album's fifth track "D-A-F." It opens with a swirling layer of ringing guitar noise and echoed dulcimer but from there builds up into an Eno-esque wave of minimalist repetition. The off-in-a-distance quality blends right into the following song, "No Wake", making the whole thing seem like a lost track from the Discreet Music sessions. However, where Eno relied on tape-delay and reversed loops to get his point across, Tulsa Drone perform it all without the aid of digital wizardry.

Ultimately, No Wake is an album made up of Slint's isolation, Godspeed's power and Eno's tranquility. Combine all that with the band's ability to solidify the album as a large cinematic opus, and you too will understand why Tulsa Drone are one of the strongest and most pleasing instrumental bands around.
— Mehran Azma, Light Up The Sky

A black-and-white photo of the Aurora Borealis hanging above a cabin buried in a snow-covered forest? Yep, that's exactly the right cover art for No Wake, the haunting debut album from Tulsa Drone, an instrumental group from Richmond, Virginia. That's right, they're not from Tulsa, and no they don't drone as much as you might expect, either. Instead they create moody, beautiful-but-deadly soundscapes using guitars, bass, drums and - holding a distinct spot in the center of most songs - the hammer dulcimer. Tulsa Drone's songs glide along but they also have an intense energy to them. This isn't bliss-out music but something much more ominous yet still gorgeous and peaceful. The would-be soundtrack to a Spaghetti Western drained of any cheap thrills or humor, No Wake feels both like waking up and being murdered - it's lovely but in its own way quite scary.
— Dave Heaton, Erasing Clouds