Let's get this out of the way - for the casual listener, the musical window shopper, there is just nothing for you here. This music will confuse you, maybe annoy you, perhaps even cause a panic attack. Even reading about it will probably just confuse and annoy; so better just stop now and forget about it.
Alright - who's left? You are not 90% - you are the music freaks, the true heads, and of
course...the drummers! Because, this record is a document of what happens when Matt
Cameron, Janet Weiss, and Zach Hill - three of the most remarkable drummers of late
period rock & roll, who's collective roll call of bands - Pearl Jam, Sleater-Kinney, Hella,
Quasi, Soundgarden,Wild Flag, Death Grips, Boredoms - have had a heavy impact on all
levels of rock & roll from full blown arena rock to the radical fringe underground, set up
together in a room & just commence to EXPLODE.
I'm in a unique position to comment on this music, as I actually scammed my way into the
session, on the pretext of video taping the whole thing. Did I actually shoot some footage?
I don't even remember, because, sitting there in the room as it all went down, I was just
transported by the spirit, the energy, the fire, which was being generated in large doses.
Three people, three drum kits, some microphones and a reel of tape - that's it: pure
spontaneity.
After the session was done and mixed, I was given access to the recordings, and I spent
hours listening closely, parsing out the details in what seems at first like a Niagara Falls of
sound. In fact it's very possible to pick out what each of the drummers is doing at a given
time and zoom in on action/reaction, call and response, time games, shifting levels of synchronization and de-synchronization, repetition and pattern...it's all there if you want to dissect it. But eventually I found that simply relaxing into the sound, riding the contours of energy, density, movement, was probably the most rewarding way of listening to this music. At this level, the experience is deeply calming, as the sound becomes a river, sometimes roaring in a torrent, other times opening up to reveal subsurface details, but always moving, flowing.
So for us, the freaks, the heads, this is gold: masters of their instruments in a frenzy of
creation - creation for its own sake, for the love of music and sound and drums, a universe
away from music as product, musician as brand. Dig it.
-Armitage Shanks