Album/Song Reviews

Modern Drummer is the world’s most widely read drum magazine, is dedicated entirely to the art of drumming and caters to the needs of amateur, semi-pro, and professional drummers.

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Billy Cobham Compass Point

With a backstory including a dangerous makeshift stage and a lottery-winning piano tuner who had quit a day earlier, this 1997 concert almost didn’t happen. And that would have been a great loss, since Billy Cobham and his superb band…

Modern Drummer
Feb 24, 2014

Marc Cary Focus Trio Four Directions

One of today’s most original and innovative pianists, Marc Cary embraces the whole of jazz history as well as diverse “world” elements. Playing predominantly acoustic piano along with Rhodes and subtle synth touches, Cary shapes intriguing harmonies and captivating melodies…

Modern Drummer
Feb 4, 2014

Dumpstaphunk Dirty Word

Dumpstaphunk pays tribute to funk groundbreakers such as Parliament/Funkadelic and Sly and the Family Stone, but with an updated sound that’s peppered with rock and second line. The nuclear driver is drummer Nikki Glaspie. Laying down hard-slamming yet finessed time,…

Modern Drummer
Jan 16, 2014

Robert Wyatt ’68

The tracks on this collection were recorded shortly after Wyatt’s band Soft Machine had broken up—temporarily, it would turn out—following a tour of the States with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In fact, Wyatt worked on the tunes while staying at…

Modern Drummer
Dec 31, 2013

Kneebody The Line

In its sputtering rhythms and swirling melodies, Kneebody is a freely roaming polyglot touching on Live-Evil-era Miles Davis, Rudder (particularly the contemporary art-funk band’s drummer, Keith Carlock), the British prog band Gentle Giant, various aggregates of hip-hop, and jam-band hypnosis.…

Modern Drummer
Dec 17, 2013
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Taking the Reins

Camille Gainer-Jones A Girl From Queens The solo debut by Camille Gainer-Jones, a Steve Coleman, Lonnie Liston Smith, and Roberta Flack vet, sounds like a house party, with instruments and vocals delivering a sometimes raucous blend. There’s an old-school Marvin…

Modern Drummer
Nov 26, 2013

The Running Jumps The Consciousness Set

The “about” section on this L.A. band’s Facebook page does well by comparing their music to the’60s psychedelic pop sounds of the Beatles and Zombies and ’90s indie-rock heavies such as Guided By Voices and Superdrag. They could easily add…

Modern Drummer
Aug 28, 2013

Jonathan Scales Fourquestra

The cover art’s mirror-reverse title script and fanciful imagery seem to suggest we’re down the rabbit hole. Maybe not Wonderland, but certainly an alternate universe. Inventive steel pan player Jonathan Scales delivers a disc that’s dazzling, shaded with surprising sonorities,…

Modern Drummer
Aug 15, 2013

Sublime 3 Ring Circus: Live at the Palace, October 21, 1995

Sublime is that rare band that enjoyed most of its success and acclaim after breaking up. Following the death by heroin overdose of vocalist and guitarist Bradley Nowell on May 25, 1996, the remaining members, drummer Bud Gaugh and bassist…

Modern Drummer
Jul 16, 2013

Queens of the Stone Age …Like Clockwork

After a six-year absence, Queens of the Stone Age are back with a new sound on their latest record, …Like Clockwork. The ten-track album came with its fair share of trials and tribulations, though. Complications from a knee surgery back…

Modern Drummer
Jun 25, 2013

Intronaut Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words With Tones)

Prime musicianship and haunting melodies make excellent bedfellows, especially when mixed with mesmerizing polyrhythms and punishing heaviness. On Intronaut’s latest, drummer Danny Walker proves that he’s perfectly suited for whatever feel is waiting around the next corner. The infectiously jilting…

Modern Drummer
Jun 12, 2013

Rival Sons Head Down

  CD The L.A. band Rival Sons derives its inspiration from the era when rock was the sole playground of mannish boys with big-ol’ bell bottoms and bigger Afros. On their second long-player, drummer Michael Miley and crew continue to…

Modern Drummer
Mar 11, 2013
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Metal Drumming Concepts: Vital Beats, Exercises, Fills, Tips & Techniques by Andols Herrick

  BOOK/DVD LEVEL: ALL $16.99 Andols Herrick, who spent many years behind the kit for the metal band Chimaira, covers the ground that drummers who play heavy music must tread, including double bass creativity and developing blast beats. Along with…

Modern Drummer
Feb 15, 2013

Mice Parade Candela

  CD/ALBUM   Drummer/multi-instrumentalist Adam Pierce leads this indie band through an array of catchy, song-based tunes and experimental arrangements highlighting a stylized sense of craft and musicianship. On “Pretending,” Pierce opens with some soft left-hand doubles that he moves…

Modern Drummer
Feb 4, 2013
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