Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Chris Brown — Talking Drum
(Sonore SON-15, 2001, CD)

by Mike Ezzo, Published 2002-04-01

Talking Drum Cover art

There is no way I could ever describe this CD better than its author has already done on the liner notes, so allow me some duty-shirking here, to give it to you as clearly as will ever be done. Talking Drum consists of “live recordings of music for electronic network music ensemble juxtaposed with location recordings of traditional music and environment soundscapes made in Bali, The Philippines, Turkey, Europe, Cuba, and America.” Interspersed throughout the 27 selections, are what he terms “inventions.” These are not field recordings as such, but collages of private performances of (Western) percussion music, and other assaults of madness. They are a lot stranger than the field-recorded material, much of which is interesting, as a kind of alternative to the narrative fashion we get from National Geographic. There is a vague sort of scope to it, but only insofar as the Bali recording of a cremation appears in three separate parts: first, in the “Bali Procession”; midway, in the “Cremation Procession Downbeat”; and at CD’s end in “Cremation Flame.” Other than this, it is free going. It doesn’t take genius to determine that Brown is a percussionist, since almost every source (of the musical selections) is from a ceremony involving drumming music, whether it be Cuban congas, or Balinese marching gamelan, or those crazy inventions. What appears to me is that Brown is attempting a global dialogue in sound. On that level it seems to work... I think.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 24, 2001 releases

Related artist(s): Chris Brown

More info
http://chrisbrowntalkingdrum.bandcamp.com/album/talking-drum

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.