Somehow, I'd have expected that Frans de Waard (Kapotte Muziek, Beequeen, Goem, "Vital Weekly" 'zine etc. etc.) would use the Shifts alias when taking part to the Drone Works series. Instead he chose Freiband, a monicker under which he has released quite different experiments over the last few years, including two cds, several limited editions and a tons remixes. This 20-minute track is definitely a drone thing, but a very nasty one. It's basically a static synth pattern, with deep basses and tinkling, glassy high-ends giving it a crisp edge. Very minimal and tense: all changes seem to involve equalization, panning and volume, and if you use headphones it's like having a clockwork machinery about to explode in your head. On a side note, it reminded me a lot of Illusion of Safety's track from the split with Randy Greif. I'm not a fan of synth-based drones, but this is great and definitely goes for the throat.