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Doomers and desert rockers would’ve had to be living under a rock to miss Brad Frye performing live at least once over the last decade. As guitarist and vocalist for desert rock band Red Mesa and founder, owner and operator of Albuquerque’s own Desert Records, his contributions to the local heavy rock scene are undeniable. His newest endeavor is a project called Droni Eye Omi — if you say the name out loud it’s easier to get the nod to the godfather of heavy metal guitar. This new musical project is a collaboration with flamenco guitarist Ronaldo Baca of the New Mexican gypsy jazz band Swing Magique.
Their debut album Liminal Mass drops March 7 on Desert Records (desertrecords.us).
“There’s going to be some heaviness to it, but I think we’ll be more on the psychedelic, spiritual side than the darker, heavy side,” says Frye. He points out that Baca “is a flamenco guitarist, but we are abandoning that, and we’re also abandoning the ‘doom’ [metal] thing. Really, we’re playing frequencies instead of riffs.”
Frye says Liminal Mass was a “completely DIY” project. The album was improvised in the recording space, recorded on their own equipment and mixed and mastered by Baca — who’s also a recording engineer. The result, Frye says, is something almost supernatural.
“We spent the time to dial in our tones frequencies and set up a lot of microphones not only on our amplifiers, but around the room to record the ambiance and really capture sound waves bouncing,” he says. “It was a really great process, man. So freeing compared to spending time writing songs and practicing them and then going in the studio and trying to perfect the performance. This was us reacting to whatever was happening at the moment. It was really beautiful.”
In addition to strengthening the scene by spreading heavy rock across the desert, Frye is just a down-to-”Earth” dude who loves talking music. Liminal Mass is inspired by albums like Earth’s essential Seattle drone metal record Earth 2 and Lamonte Young’s Composition 1960 No. 7. Frye admits rock genres are getting a bit confusing these days, but he describes Droni Eye Omi as “meditative drone metal” and says he wants to “elevate the vibrations” with the new project.
He says sometimes it’s easier just to tell people he plays heavy rock ’n’ roll, but he explains the “drone metal” genre about as well as anyone could. According to Frye, humans have been “droning” using instruments such as flutes, whistles, didgeridoos and various percussion instruments for ages. He says drone is “primeval” — one of the earliest forms of music.
“My definition of drone is when you are taking a single note or frequency and having that play consistently over and over, while there are other sounds being made underneath that,” he says. “With drone metal, you’re dealing with lots of distortion and other guitar bass effects. You’re creating something that will resonate for a long time, building up frequencies and also harnessing feedback with distortion. The base level of drone is a long continuous frequency or vibration.”
The first single – the 30-minute track “Chromosphere”– is out now on Bandcamp, but Frye says Droni Eye Omi has special plans for the official March 7 Liminal Mass release show at Guild Cinema (3405 Central Ave. SE) including a psychedelic light show and other atmosphere-altering surprises. Tickets are $12 and available now at holdmyticket.com/event/444555.
“Ronaldo and I are going to perform three different acts,” Frye says. “The final act will be a drone circle with other Albuquerque musicians coming up and melting your brain.”
Droni Eye Omi Album Release Party
March 7, 10:30 p.m.
Guild Cinema
3405 Central Ave. SE
$12