“World renowned” drummers Drake and Stewart collaborate on 8 tracks of percussion only (mostly) compositions. Some sound like you might expect for the platform: drum solos. But others are highly textured mosaics of percussive creativity, spellbinding. A few of these would fit right in an Experimental noise set, others gladly in a World set, while the rest in Jazz. Drake has a long resume, having played with Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Herbie Hancock. His work with William Parker is quite notable (some of my personal favorite work of bassist Parker’s, who I am a huge fan of). But he has also worked with world musicians, including Reggae. His roots in Afro-Cuban music come through heavily in the lovely tribalism that permeates all of this CD. Looking forward to playing this amongst a doom metal set.

1) (7:22) starts chill, then tom tom hand rolls, spiritual sounding vocal chanting enters and dominates
2) (11:59) conga type rolls kick into total tribal overdrive, funky, full on rhythmic killer stuff w/ some high hat and full drums entering slowly into the mix
3) (6:01) cymbal scrapes with tom tom, builds more percussively and emphatically
4) (6:01) despite beginning with a flute like sound, almost entirely composed on the high hat, with some ride cymbal in there, intense
5) (4:00) low harmonica (?) single note melody with tom toms
6) (8:12) starts off like a full on drum solo, then concentrated on tom toms, then back to drum solo’ness
7) (3:23) african musical drum tones, melodic
8) (5:17) super cool drone over which percussion all over the kit, hardware included, ensues