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This is a little drum dumb assness for ya but I was thinking that it was Dennis Chambers playing drums on this album. Now before you go any further you can know that it’s Dave Weckl. My bad.
The biggest problems with album like this is if you don’t know what to expect, they can be written off as a dated recording due to the very ‘out there’ sounds they used. Truth. But being released in 1986 a lot of this stuff was ahead of it’s time, and without a lot of time to actually digest how certain sounds sound, being in the tunnel of awesome it’s difficult to see what’s ‘too electronic drums’ or ‘too flaming guitar solo’ or ‘too cheesy keyboard’ sounds. In that same token, it’s what makes the music that much more remarkable. It’s the experimentation with the sounds with some phenomenal players. When it works it’s a very nice result.
My favorite track on this album is ‘Got a Match?‘. When hearing this phrase I immediately think of the Beavis & Butthead movie, and now that you do too we can move on to the album.
Although Rumble is somewhat uptempo and City Gate has it’s moments with some crazy drums in them, Got a Match? (see, how can you forget that scene?) is the first time the album let’s loose. The first time I heard this song I had to stop what I was doing to make sure I saved this track so I could listen to it bunch. It starts with a really awesome, yet really subdued drumming on the high hat and snare with alternating ghost doubles and a melodious keyboard line. After a short intro together the drums build adding some bass drum hits and the bass comes in. The keyboard takes you on a little journey for a minute until they come back to that hook from the intro. The beat this time includes some ride bell hits and a more complete build of the part. They meander for a bit then break for the drums to do their thing, come back for a hair then really letting the drums do their thing. Some keys and bass get thrown in but if there was ever a song where the drum solo doesn’t feel just gratuitous and is a real part of the song this would be that song. The beat on it’s own can be a solo for most drummers so the fact that it gets built up takes the song up that much further, while keeping the drums on track with the keyboard melody. Before you know it the song is over and you need to listen again to make sure you heard that correctly.
Coming in just shy of an hour with 11 songs this album covers a lot of ground. The electronic drum sounds and synth sounds get a workout throughout the album, but again as you’re coming into this stuff why wouldn’t you want to see how far you can explore it and see where it can go?
This album is further proof I have a long way to go to get over my ‘traditional’ jazz tastes and there are some amazing recordings out there that I’m excited to get involved with.
DRUMNMIKE 