You may be a droner but you ain't no chanter

February 15, 2022 5:45 PM

The Drone Abides: Bagpipes in Experimental Music (SL Bandcamp with a writeup and plenty of links).
posted by mandolin conspiracy (12 comments total)

Fantastic, I'll have to chew on these many links for a while. I've been saying for a while that the line drawn through Beethoven's Grosse Fuge into Stravinsky's Rite of Spring into the dissonance & distortion of modern guitars & electronic music suggests bagpipes as an instrument ripe for modern appreciation in a new context.

Archy J's work as The Snake Charmer has been particularly neat in recent years, going from pop-culture covers to Celtic-Punjabi cultural crossover to international collaborations.
posted by CrystalDave at 6:13 PM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

I have a desperate love for bagpipe in places it doesn't usually go, such as jazz bagpipers Rufus Harley or Gunhild Carling (I just missed seeing her live this month!), or this cross-cultural overkill extravaganza (sure, big drums, throat-singing, multiple bagpipeers, just keep it coming)
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 6:54 PM on February 15, 2022 [4 favorites]

Archy J is a goddamn international treasure.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 6:54 PM on February 15, 2022

a strong case for the bagpipes as a rock instrument

[extremely Bon Scott voice]: It's true, it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock 'n' drone
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:22 PM on February 15, 2022 [3 favorites]

Wonder how much of this interest was prompted by the pipes in Dune (which were pretty darn epic) ?
posted by phigmov at 8:42 PM on February 15, 2022

(vigorous applause for title)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:43 AM on February 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

I checked out most of these albums when I saw this pop up in my Bandcamp feed. I had an unexpected emotional reaction to the song "June" on that History of Sleep album. I honestly had tears in my eyes but couldn't possibly explain why.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 7:00 AM on February 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

Now all I want to hear is Helter Skelter on bagpipes...
posted by Windopaene at 8:31 AM on February 16, 2022

Ohhhhh my freaking gawd, avant garde bagpipes are basically my favorite thing EVER.

If Matthew Welch called me out of the blue, with no prior introduction, and asked for $500, I would say YES.

Thank you so much for this post!
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 4:33 AM on February 17, 2022

Just being the nerd who points out that there are hundreds of types of bagpipes. This is referring to the Great Highland Pipes or just Highland Pipes if you’d like. As an Uilleann Piper it’s annoying as heck.
posted by misterpatrick at 8:03 AM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

As an Uilleann Piper it’s annoying as heck.

Don't neglect the border pipes and small pipes.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:56 PM on February 18, 2022

misterpatrick: Actually, the cut by Brìghde Chaimbeul & Dimcho Enchev was played on the kaba gaida from South Bulgaria, and apart from a few harmonies and the arrangement was a straightforward bit of Bulgarian kaba gaida music. East Europeans and balkan bagpipes don't get much attention outside of their home communities, but there are some interesting new sounds happnening all over the map.

I play Hungarian duda, Bulgarian and macedonaian gaida, and Romanian cimpoi. It requires one to do a lot more than simply learn the music: you have to be able to make and tune the reeds, replace the goatskin bags (and find a source of goatskins and learn to cure them) and among some cultures if you play them you can't enter a church.
posted by zaelic at 12:33 PM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]