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"Just Drums"
If "prog-esque overblown, overlong self-indulgent wankery" sounds like a bad thing or if comparison with Tales From Topographic Oceans carries un-cool implications then this CD may not be for you. I doubt that there remain many Brainwashed readers who still subscribe to the NME's Exclusion Principle, i.e. that to like The Fall you have to revile Yes, and it is to those thus enlightened readers that I'd recommend Just Drums.
Fever Pitch
Think instead about a more important principle: there never was a truly great band with a less than excellent drummer. While many a band has achieved true greatness with ho-hum guitarists, challenged singers or uninspired keyboard players, none achieved that level with a mediocre drummer. So it's really only fair that the drummers should have a CD of their own from time to time and this is one: seventeen drum solos from masterful drummers in diverse corners of the muso-sphere. Kicking things off is Gregg Bendian, respected improviser and leader of the Mahavishnu Project, with an expansive workout through fusion topography. Even for non-drummers and people who, like myself, know absolutely nothing about drumming, it's fun to play the reminds-me-of game. Though we may not understand them, the game works because perhaps drums dominate the musical world we live in and we learn subliminally. Bendian's flamboyant, rollicking, colorful and bewilderingly complicated playing reminds me of, appropriately enough, Billy Cobham. Laura Cromwell, former God is my Co-Pilot drummer, has a short, kind-of Jon Hassell moment. Victor Delorenzo's straightforward but seriously swinging piece backs less than 100% convincing singing (presumably his own); evidence in support of that more important principle. Dylan Fusillo's contribution is a beautiful fusion of African and more western styles, initially a vertical form elaboration of a driving tonic beat it beaks away into a real but brief drum solo on that same basis. Gerry Hemingway has impressive credentials and I've enjoyed his work since way back but hadn't kept track of his more recent activity. Here we find him working with electronics and extended technique—most of it is beautiful except that the squiggly electronic sounds (mere electronics) rather annoy me. What I never liked was a jazz drum solo. These seemed to be aiming specifically for maximal confusion of the meter, often through gratuitous acceleration and deceleration. This detestable effect ruins John Hollenbeck's otherwise lovely effort as well as Payton Macdonald's. So it's surprising that I enjoy William Hooker's piece—it sounds like a jazz drum solo but has enough form, tension and energy to hold it together for fully eleven and a half minutes. I've run out of space so the last word goes to Nandor Nevai and his explosive "Nonillion, 10 to the 13th Power" that, in a mere 90 seconds, is a gem of power, anger and sonic brilliance. It has something of the seductive impact of Lightning Bolt, if you ever caught them live.
- Gregg Bendian - One Million
- Dylan Fusillo - Omo Leyin
- Nondor Nevai - 10 to the 13th Power
