Drum Cells combines a slow Chicago blues instrumentation and atmosphere with an unusual, avant-garde modular structure more reminiscent of Terry Riley than Willie Dixon. Written in a mostly non-linear fashion, the music is divided up into one- or two-measure “cells,” which each player may play up to twelve times in succession before moving on. Players can return at any time to a cell they have played previously, and there are cells for resting as well as for free improvisation. Although many of the building blocks represent familiar motifs from the language of the blues, the differing cell lengths and the piece's non-linear structure soon rob the music of a consistent downbeat, resulting in unpredictable metric syncopations.
In general, although the structure of Drum Cells is designed to foil the easy simultaneity of riffs and gestures, this does not mean that the performers deliberately avoid accessible grooves and/or a sense of forward motion. Rather, the idea is to combine these familiar building blocks in unexpected ways, creating new, literally offbeat grooves that surprise and galvanize the listener. It’s as if a group of people from different countries were trying to hold a coherent and meaningful conversation, with each one using a language consisting only of a very limited and somewhat random collection of words, phrases, and sounds.
| Listen |