There's a coda to the last track on the first Eardrum disc 'Last Light'where the drums pick up speed and the sound shifts to a denser butrougher texture and although I enjoyed the album I was left wishingthey'd gone more in that direction. Now it seems they have. If you wantdeeply hypnotic heavy rhythm then the second Eardrum album is what youneed. Lou Ciccotelli might be best known as Laika's drummer, but hasalso played in God and Mass amongst others. In Eardrum he teams up withRichard Olatunde Baker to play African influenced drum patterns whichare then manipulated in the studio to make a finely wrought entrancingmusic that pushes beyond the limits of genre. Although they've beeninfluenced by such luminaries as Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Lee Perry andFela Kuti, I'm reminded more of Can's last great track 'Smoke', one ofHolger Czukay's 'ethnic forgeries'. This would have been a greatjumping off point for Can to head into the heart of darkness, butinstead they lightened up and got slicker and poppier as Czukay tookmore of a back seat. Eardrum play dark heartbeats all the way. Titleslike 'Sandblasted', 'Bone Room' and 'Darker Still' sum up these eerietwilight talking drum rumblings perfectly. Although 'Side Effects' iscertainly a multi-layered drum led album, Ciccotelli and Baker and theseven other musicians have employed a huge range of percussion anddrone instruments, and some atmospheric sax and whistles. It allcoalesces perfectly on the ominous 'Lightfell' as deep drones underpinthe shifting movement of the shadow flicker drums and snake charmingwhistles. 'Side Effects' would make a great soundtrack for a journey upa great river in a dense overgrown jungle to an unknown destination.This album is released by the Leaf label and if you go towww.posteverything.com where it's available by mail order, you canlisten to real audio excerpts.
