You know that movie Predator? When the special OPs soldiers are investigating things in the jungle, no one knows what is happening. The music accompanying parts of movies like this is sparse, physical and invokes that "mystery." Bowed cymbals, woodblocks, water drums, "ethnic" percussion. It tells the audience, "You're not from here, and there is mystery." Toshiaki Ishizuka's third album "Drum Drama" is like the beginning of Predator, for forty minutes, persistently hiding in the jungle, sneaking up on you, attacking, receding, droning, dilly-dallying in the underbrush. There is drama, indeed. The kind that implements silence as much as sound.Shimmery percussive dronescapes constantly redirected by a "kitchen-sink" drumming approach are what this album is all about. It's amazing that there's even a drumset involved, since most of the sounds (save for the sparse and emphatic tom fills) sound more like pots and pans, lakes and bells. Plus it's just one dude. I find it incredible that all these sounds are from hands or sticks hitting things. The drones that come from some of these membranes are awesome as they capture such rich, multi-dimensional tones. My brand new iMac can make my office sound like a well-tended Japanese garden, with professionial nods from the Samurai sentries and the occasional tanuki battle. It's all very serious, but also very capable of outbursts. It's drama, people.
The album I got is all in Japanese, save the album name and song titles. So I have no idea what instruments are being used to do all this amazing textural work. And even though Toshiaki Ishizuka is a bit of an underground drumming legend in Japan, I can't find much about him other than he is in a band with Keiji Haino called Vajra, which i recall is a "sword of truth." Awesome solo work.
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