Cindy Stern:
"Don't know if these two
have been mentioned: This Heat - 24 Track Loop; Miles Davis - Rated X."
Peter Diaper:
"Has anybody nominated
Frank Bagnoud of The Young Gods yet? If not, then I insist
on THIS:
(Although I'm wondering
now if they were totally live, unsampled - did they sample themselves on that
one?)" [No, in a very deliberate decision, while all the other non-vocal sounds were sampled, the rhythm was human and caveman-muscular - I guess they were going for some kind of Futurist-digital / primal-analog merger. Or cyberpunk meets hardcorepunk]
Keith McDougall:
"The Fall's "Tempo House- One of the Fall's
biggest influences was Can. On the surface, the major difference between Can
and the Fall would seem to be that while the former fully absorbed the rhythmic
sophistication of jazz and funk, (Jaki Liebezeit is surely one the all-time
great drummers!) the Fall sounded like the whitest kids alive, taking the
repetition of funk and Krautrock but none of the tight, precise, nimble swing
of those genres.
"But here's the thing:
is it just me, or is the groove of "Tempo House" -- a brutal,
lurching, lumbering, staggering slow-motion caveman plod, with some lovely
little cowbell, highhat and tom details filling in the gaps -- a kind of
funk so far removed from funk that it's almost like the weird rhythmic
experiments of late '90's/early '00's rap and grime. I'm thinking of stuff like
Missy Elliot's 'The Rain', Danny Weed & Target's 'Fresh Air', Kano and
Wonder's 'What Have You Done', slow-mo stuff like DJ Screw and some dubstep,
maybe even Cannibal Ox's 'Pigeon'?"
"Gang Gang Dance - Glory In Itself - Speaking of which, when
Gang Gang Dance did that track with Tinchy Stryder it was hardly surprising -
they'd obviously been listening to grime for a while. My second nomination
"Glory in Itself" is proof. But does this count? I believe GGD's
drummer uses electronic drum pads, so I guess it's borderline
"machine-rhythm".
"This Heat - Independence - Continuing along these
lines, the drumming in my third nomination, This Heat's
"Independence", was probably reggae-inspired, but with those weird
stop-start bits and the Orientalist instrumentation (cf. Japan's Tin Drum), it
sounds a bit like early '00's dancehall or grime."
Mike Monaghan:
"All this drum talk but
without mention as yet to GADD?!
"I can barely make it through a day without hearing Late in the Evening...
"(Also featuring the great Richard Tee on keys)"
"I can barely make it through a day without hearing Late in the Evening...
"(Also featuring the great Richard Tee on keys)"
[Didn't Steve Gadd also do "Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover"? Indeed he did]
"Filippo Trecca - La morte dell'erminia --Subtle, simple, to the point and satisfyingly effective. The guy manages to maintain the groove and yet not detract from the loveliness of the arrangement"
"Abdullah
Ibrahim - Imam: From his recording
Africa: Tears and Laughter (as Dollar Brand). John Betsch killing it on this
one. Again, effortlessly groovy, and yet so attentive during the solo and with
some great chops. Jazz drumming at its finest."
"Art Blakey
& Thelonious Monk - In Walked Bud. Art Blakey doing what
he did best. Steady as a rock, always listening to his players, great accents,
throwing in his polyrhythms, restrained and tasteful."
"Neu! - Fur Immer - Klaus Dinger's style, for me, defines what people perceive as the quintessence of krautrock and has proven immensely influential in the past 15-20 years. Fluid, economical and flawless. Perfect."
"Meshuggah -
Stengah - Despite Tomas Haake's
obvious ability, it was a conscious decision on the part of the band to base
their music around mostly single-note riffs driven forward by closely
syncopated drum patterns, creating complex revolving polyrhythms. All done in
favour of creating a unified mood rather than making a statement of technical
ability. It may sound a bit mystifying how the band manages to groove on fairly
complex rhythmic patterns and relationships, but the trick was having Haake
count out on 4/4 on the snare and cymbals while his kick drum replicates the
guitar parts note-for-note, even though they're in different time
signatures. Completely sui generis and entirely unique band."
"Mastodon - Mother Puncher -- Remission exploded into the scene like a behemoth who'd had a bad curry. Brann Dailor is quite a unique metal drummer. He brings a loose '70s approach to modern metal, going for organic, fluid lines and he doesn't use triggers, thereby allowing all the dynamics to develop and the nuances of his playing to shine through. Sometimes overplaying is what's called for, just ask Mitch Mitchell...
"Chick Corea
Quartet - Cappucino - What can one say about
Steve Gadd [NOT HIM AGAIN!] that hasn't been said before...a wonderful performance with one of
the finest ensembles of the past 50 years. His interplay with the soloists, as
well as Eddie Gomez on the bass is phenomenal. Insane rhythm section...
"Dave
Douglas' Tiny Bell trio - Ferrous - Jim Black, in a
typically awesome performance. Stripped down drum kit, groovy as shit,
supertight, inventive and responsive. "
Chris Barnes:
"Stevie Wonder - Superstition. Just listen closely to the hi-hats freely weaving their way around the layers of clavinova. Stevie perfectly strikes the balance between keeping a recognisable groove and constantly changing the patterns to make them more interesting.
"Sly & The Family Stone -- "Rock Dirge" - Sly & Family Stone would have to be in there somewhere. I'll choose this one because the drums are at the forefront - was sampled by Outkast on their great track "Spottieottiedopalicous""
"Parliament - Do That Stuff. My favourite Parliament drumming courtesy of Bigfoot. This song made me understand what people meant when they describe a drum beat
as 'tight'. If you search on youtube, there are some great live variations of
the drum intro."
"Funky Drummer - Clyde Stubblefield . This might the biggest cliche ever, but there is a reason it is sampled so much.
Can you imagine a world without this?
"Lastly... just for something different: Drumbo needs some sort of mention, even if you picked another song."
"actually it's nothing
else but drumming"
"the essential krauty
drumming" - I agree and so did Alex Vagenas up top there: Neu!, "Fur Immer" gets a double nomination. Who here would not cosign on this one?
"best recorded drum part
ever!"
Eoghan Barry:
"The Band - "King
Harvest" -- the way Levon Helm
holds the first big snare hit after each chorus, sounds more convulsive and
desperate each time it arrives. Nothing flashy, but it's a big part of the way
the music tells the story.
"Sleep - Dopesmoker - I was thinking of Chris
Hakius on Dopesmoker but it's not quite as loose and on the verge of
disintegration as I remember. Still a pretty impressive performance to hold it
together over the full sixty minutes…
Tomás de Andrade Ramos Pinheiro:
"For more recent drums,
Metronomy did a great job on their last record. The drums feels almost
machine like and a little Fleetwoodie"
[yes - love the drumming on this record, and particularly on this track. So measured and, well, metronomic, but with a real physical heft and swing]
"From Brazil i give you
Domenico Lancelotti - One of the best drummers
out here. "Te convidei pro samba" the drums gets the
fury from Domenico's vocals. Great samba drums"
Matt Moore:
"Gonna pitch a vote for
Grant Hart here. The drums are fluid. Not in the sinuous sense of a funk
drummer like Tyrone McCullen but rather splashes of liquid from dysfunctional
garden spray system. Closely linked, yet in constant contrast, to the acidic
haze of Bob Mould's guitar."
[i would have gone for "Reoccuring Dreams" myself - like a storm that subsides slightly and gathers with renewed fury - again and again. he must have been one of the first drummers of the after-punk era to bring back the splashy cymbals thing]
Julian Weber:
"Johnny
Machine (of Tortoise) - I think he was playing on that instrumental of
The For Carnation "How I beat the devil", released on their debut ep
(released 1995). Either, him or Britt Walford, the other amazing drummer of the
90s. What makes Machine's
drumming special is the dynamics, the silence and then the punch. No virtuoso,
just reduction and concentration on the basics, the beauty of a 4/4. The song has aged well"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
And bloggers round-up / catch-up:
I was wondering if there were any actual drummers out there, and I'd forgotten that Aaron at Airport Through the Trees
was, or is. Also never quite fully registered what a jazz fiend he is...
He's going methodically through the decades and it is great reading, especially
the post that's framed with the caveat "I'm drunk".
Our God Is Speed gets going on go go over at the Eighties blog Faces On Posters Too Many Choices and has some further thoughts on go go chez lui
after having already dispatched Velvets / Bo Diddley and dissed an un-fave
after having already dispatched Velvets / Bo Diddley and dissed an un-fave
(at the time i took an anti-go go stance, partly out of antipathy to its Face/City Limits/NME-soulboy constituency in the UK, but also because it felt like rap was the futurist option in 1986 and go go a Seventies throwback. it does seem like its sweaty collectivity only really made sense in DC, in live situ. So in that sense the opposite of rap, which in those days was almost invariably shit in the concert situation, but records-wise worked as club fodder and through being personality and persona-driven, was ripe for mass media, MTV, etc)
Dream Transmissions on disco
Pere Le Brun on "Ecstatic Drums"
(by which he means Mitch Mitchell... a rocker with jazz in his blood... then onto jazz itself, focusing on Elvin Jones)
and also c/o And What Will Be Left Of Them with a megadrop of postpunky drumstuff
Cardrossmaniac with a quickie on, wouldyabelieve it, the dude in INXS
Carl the former-Impostume on Motorhead
and T. Rex
and Teenage Jesus
Finally "here is something you can't understand / Oasis had a good drummer man" as argued by Alex Niven at The Fantastic Hope, who says Tony McCarroll was the man for the job precisely because he was shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite
^^^^^^^^^
and if you missed it, the Kodwo Special Edition of Drummige Cru