REVIEWS..................
FLY: global music culture
3-D - Future Primitive
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I've never understood the 'less is more' concept preferring the hedonistic 'the more the better'. In terms of drumming, that skool would cover a range of Earth Wind & Fire to Adam and the Ants to Keepintime to the real samba orchestras in Rio or Bahia with a hundred, or even five hundred drummers.
However, you've got to be mindful of appealing to just a constituency of The Drummer magazine subscribers or Mickey Hart's Planet Drum as there's always a risk that the end result sounds more like a drumming circle exercise than a listenable/danceable album.
The initial recordings from LA's Shrine Auditorium have been transformed such that Future Primitive doesn't have that problem.
'Pharoah's Groove' starts a little ambient but soon gets into the beats of a king of the desert.
Gongs, congas, cymbals add to the atmosphere which gets really dark on the next track, the suitable entitled 'Shady'. This is a jungle rock drum workout with the flute to scare the pants off ya — especially with some synth weirdness at the end.
One of Airto's greatest tracks ever was 'Celebration' and here's another where the 3-D drum troop effect works really well. The next track, 'Concrete Jungle' starts on a similar theme but with a throbbing bass line and keys from a jazz-funk period it's a bit like Weather Report meets the Black Umfolosi Welly Boot Dancers
Each track progresses into tunes, like the funky beat of 'Funk Shui' with a dirty rock solo which reminds me that I must get out New York Dolls' 'Stranded In The Jungle'. Apart from the title of, 'A Starman's Song' there's not a particularly obvious Bowie link to it. In fact, it sounds like Richard Burton reading Under Milk Wood but it works a treat as the introduction to 'Native Space'. This is the highlight of the eleven tracks as it's bang on in a cosmic Spiritual South zone of samba with beautifully crafted synths and strings. No remix required here as it's going to sound great on 12"; perhaps only Nicola Conte could add something to it?
.... shove this into a 'Many Are Called But Few Get Up' or 'Moby Dick' mixtape.
I recommend that you check the www.3dproject.co.uk site for more background on the project, video and sound samples.