stave - Saints No Drum (2022)

Standards & Practices return with their second release this year, following the release of Krohn/Mjolsness’s superb Drummer EP.

The first proper Stave release since 2021’s collaboration with Karim Maas on UVB-76, Godless, Saints No Drum is a concise and definitive artistic statement from Jonathan Krohn that encompasses everything that made his previous releases so captivating, while taking the sound in exciting new directions.

Drum 1–4 display a level of refinement and restraint rarely heard in modern electronic music, and there’s a sustained atmosphere of brooding, simmering tension that’s simultaneously meditative and menacing.

The interstitial tracks here—Fred S, Krohn/Schneider, Squared Off, and the title track—lend texture, depth, and nuance to a release that adds to up to much more than the sum of its parts.