Year: 2001/2026
Label: Caciocavallo/Zoharum

These 3 CD compilations by Zoharum are daunting releases to review. Regardless of project, they usually present over three hours of experimental music to tackle; music, which even in more moderate portions is a lot to take in. So too this time around: British Rapoon’s Cold War – Drum ‘n’ Bass throws almost three and a half hours of repetitive, minimalistic ambient/electronica/drum ‘n’ bass at the listener with no regards to safety or sanity.

Cold War – Drum ‘n’ Bass was originally released in 2001 as a double disc album. This quinvigintennial – yes, I looked the word up – release adds a third disc, featuring material recorded in 2025. Many are the years between the original album and the third, new disc, but Rapoon manages to admirably recapture the sound and style of the old recordings, and rather seamlessly collate the new material to the old.

Whilst the album, as its name hints at and the accompanying promo letter says out loud, is inspired by the drum ‘n’ bass genre and frequently forays into it, Cold War is also very much an ambient album. There are tracks with no percussion, just the sweeping, looping synths one would expect from an ambient project. Processed, looping samples also play a significant role, as on Rapoon’s and Pas Musique’s collaborative album Knowledge Has No Enemies But The Ignorant (review).

But then there are also tracks with the repetitive programmed percussive loops one associates with drum ‘n’ bass. I, with my scant knowledge of the genre, would typically expect d’n’b to be more focused on rhythmic, driving elements; Cold War, on the other hand and despite the rhythmic nature of the loops, isn’t particularly rhythmic. The rest of the music flows on its own pace, often quite apart from the rhythm. This creates a weird discontinuity, which sometimes is jarring, but at other times strangely efficient.

Perhaps a bit surprisingly, the d’n’b elements don’t sound as out of place in Rapoon’s ambient as one might expect. Some of the time, they don’t feel that many miles apart from the looping, tribal percussions of Dream Circle (review). Less tribal, certainly, and less ritualistic, but the same interplay between percussive loops providing explicit structure and the abstraction of the rest remains.

I won’t sugarcoat it: I find Cold War to be an infuriating release to sit through, in one go or in parts. There are bits and passages, and even the odd track here that I like. But on the whole, the combination of static percussive loops, elusive layers of samples, electronics and synths, and the sheer size of it all is just too much. It’s just too understated, too minimalistic and, to reiterate, too much for me. But then again – I don’t really like d’n’b, so what do you expect?

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