Nice, insightful post.

I recently purchased a compilation of tracks by five drone-based experimental artists called "Time and Relative Dimensions in Space" (the artists are Taurpis Tula, The Skaters, My Cat Is An Alien, Jim Haynes, and Number None, the comp. was released in 2005 by the label Rebis). [link]

It suggests that drone can do something similar to what drumming does on Burial's album, which is to place the listener in a "system of time that is not of this world." While Burial's (and Jones') drums do this by emphasiszing timekeeping and the passage of time (using syncopation, layered rhythms, etc to disrupt the listener's perception and expectation of time as a metronomic, regular procession of moments), drone transports the listener by dilating time into a perpetual NOW... we do not anticipate the next beat, we simply listen...

The liner notes to the "Time" compilation are a bit silly and New Agey, beginning with this sentence: "When the Second God first made available the choice between Objective and Subjective Time, it was not immediately obvious to the people of Earth what benefists this transciritcal bifurcation held, so the Second God sent a series of agents to display a few of the new marvels." I would say that Burial and Jones are agents of these new marvels as well as the artists on the "Time" comp.

Make of all that what you will, what I'm trying to say is that I'd be interested to hear what Charles would think of contemporary drone-based music.

even better than dookie?