The instrumental explorations of Richmond’s Tulsa Drone spread across a stark, moody landscape that equally recalls the prog rock of the mid-’90s Chicago scene and the later moments of Dead Can Dance—the hammered dulcimer playing as large a part as it does.

That said, Tulsa Drone are playing upon a field that few have trod across in recent years. No Wake leads us along this sharp prog/goth path so extraordinarily well that it instantly recalls images, places it could be heard so exactly: a solitary car trip through a winterized birch forest, the first seconds after waking up with a loved one, a wordless rock club filled with warm summer swelter.

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.



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