Kevin Drumm, born in 1970 and raised near Chicago, is a guitarist and electronic musician who has moved from the quietest improvisation to some of the harshest noise on record. He began with prepared tabletop guitar, distorting the instrument with magnets, binder clips, chains, a violin bow and even toenail clippers, and his self-titled debut of 1997 is a landmark of that approach. Drawn into Chicago's improv community around Jim O'Rourke and Ken Vandermark, he then turned to modular synthesizers and computer: Sheer Hellish Miasma (2002) is a wall of electronic violence, while Imperial Distortion and the many editions he sells himself are vast, still drones.