On their accomplished debut album Melodic Drone, Unruly Disturbance deftly blends expansive electronic soundscapes and resonant, expressive melodies across a lengthy 16 tracks. With a run time of more than an hour and a half, there are plenty of immersive worlds in which to lose one’s self. Hailing from Manchester, UK, Unruly Disturbance is an Ambient recording project of Tom Collingburn, also known as My Favorite Blade of Grass. Unruly Disturbance loves their Tasty Chips Electronics GR-1 (the synth featured on the cover, with two tracks dedicated to it) and has a penchant for mildly cheeky song titles like “Droning in F” and the apt “Everything’s Fine” into “Until It Isn’t”. The story of Unruly Disturbance’s name might be a cagey lark in their bio, but it’s apropos for the various textures poking out on this debut. Things rattle and shake, seeming at times like they’re going to launch into the stratosphere - and yes, we are talking about Ambient music here, though perhaps (like much of the music being produced in the ever evolving genre) Unruly Disturbance does not rigidly adhere to the strictures of “background” or “furniture” music that is often associated with some of the bigger names in the space. It is indeed unruly at times, especially the first half, and that is where much of the album’s charm and beauty spring from - those moments when Collingburn defies dogma and forges his own path.
