Customer Reviews

Drums of Death

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Long anticipated and well worth the wait, Drums of Death is a supergroup recording if ever there was one. DJ Spooky and Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo initially conceived the project as a duo which eventually morphed into a full band project. Multi-instrumentalist / producer Jack Dangers (aka: Meat Beat Manifesto) signed on as did Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid along with a few vocal appearances by Public Enemy Number 1.

Chuck D unleashes his trademarked delivery on three cuts which evokes Public Enemy's salad days, when the Bomb Squad had Rick Rubin's support to sample and pillage until pure waves of sound were at their disposal. Now those sound waves come courtesy of DJ Spooky and Jack Dangers' limitless arsenal of sound, with additional shredding support courtesy of Vernon Reid. Considering "Brother's Gonna Work it Out," "B-Side Wins Again" and "Public Enemy # 1" are all old Public Enemy tunes, it's interesting to hear how well these re-imagined hip-hop classics fit into a more modern program and how, by their inclusion, a historical continuum is created. Dalek even shows up to rap on "Assisted Suicide" backed by a surprisingly effective vocal sample of avant garde composer Meredith Monk.

The album is primarily instrumental with the main players reveling in their respective genres to magnificent effect. As expected, there are moments of churning speed metal but relentlessly funky bass, shuffling break beats and spacey dub reggae appear as well. The turntable mixing and sampling is old school cool crossed with sci-fi ambience. DJ Spooky and Dave Lombardo even break it down to a show stopping duo in "Incipit Zarathustra." "Drums of Death" is an impressive assemblage and a cogent study in rhythmic texture with the boys showing off some improvisational chops on "The Art of War." There have been numerous hip-hop, rock and jazz collaborations before but none have been as intriguingly cohesive as this. Tentatively part of Thirsty Ears' new "metallic blue" series... one can only imagine what will come next.

As an experiment, this is great stuff, and several tracks work exactly as you would expect them to, given the musicians that you have here. Several tracks fail spectacularly, and several tracks are about half as good as they could have been. I'll give Spooky (or anyone) major props for trying a collaboration like this, but my overall feeling is that this could have been a masterpiece, and instead it's only good in short bursts. Buy it if you're feeling adventurous.

Oh my God ! Spooky with the god father of political rap (Chuck D) is almost too much to listen to on a workday !

Spooky and Dave's beats are sick and Chuck D is the perfect addition to this CD. B Side wins again is so sick I almost lost my mind listening to it at work ! :-)

Much ups to Chuck, Dave, and Spooky...real "rebels without a pause"!

Drums of Death featuring Dave Lombardo (of Slayer) and Chuck D (of Public Enemy) is a collaborative effort to which I had never thought could exist. However when you listen to the full CD, you will see how it does indeed work so well. The remix of (one of my personally favorite P.E. tunes) B-Side was done so well, it blew me away. There are Lots of recorded Loops and samples of Dave Lombardo's drumming, that Spooky uses to beat juggle and use for fills in other tunes. Lombardo is featured in full on other tunes on this album, as well. Chuck D of Public Enemy fame does a very classy job at doing his MC mastery on several tunes on this FULL length album. It reminds me of the full efforts that public enemy put into the collaborative work that they did with Anthrax in the '80s. Most importantly, do not judge this album by the posted clips on the page listing. The tunes on the album did not seem at all as if they were the same songs, that the clips reflect. I'm a music lover, a DJ, and a sentimentalist. I give this album an A+. Well done Spooky.

Dj Spooky`s new album, Drums of Death, is packed full of high-energy remixes and original tracks. This all-star collaboration brings together elements of Heavy Metal, Hip Hop and Electronica, creating a powerful new sound.
Great job musically! I would suggest this album to anyone who is into fusion and hybrid music, although it might be a bit much for the mainstream listener.

This project is brilliant. DJ Spooky again bridges a gap between diverse musical genres to create a fresh and unique sound that pounds nicely through any speakers. Drums of Death plays so nicely, in fact, that it is easy to underestimate the difficulty of the mix while enjoying the flow, but that is the beauty of Spooky's musicianship. An all around excellent album.

There's definitely a lot going on here, but if expectations of what a DJ "should" produce are dropped and the music judged on its merits, this has a lot to offer.

Man! Jack Dangers, Chuck D, Vernon Reid, Dave Lombardo... An incredible group of talent. However, the majority of the album loses steam with the contrasting energies of the individual parts creating a fractured and meandering whole. Credit must definitely be given to Dave Lombardo for excellent drum work, Chuck D for being Chuck D, and to Jack Dangers for the Bass and Guitar(!?) work on several of the songs. This album is a great gesture, but seems to be more of a novelty album than a repeat player. I like DJ Spooky's older illbient material, but I still feel that he is an excellent DJ, but a hit or miss producer.

Ultimately, it's the kind of amazing lineup album that I'm dying to get a hold of, but now am a bit disappointed now that I've got it in my hands...

Similar or related (and much better than this album):
Praxis
Material
Fantomas
Meat Beat Manifesto
Public Enemy

Just as simple as that. I own just about everything that Spooky has put out and I own many things that Thirsty Ear has released and this has got to be the worse release to date. Not that the idea or the combination between these musicians was a bad idea but the idea just didn't get realized with this recording. Songs seem like a bunch of pieces just slapped together and not well thought out constructions.

I just hope no one buys this album as their first experience to DJ Spooky.

DJ, Producer, Musician, Writer, artist, and Filmmaker(ha) is often called a Renaissance man. Well Mr. Spooky just because you own final cut pro doesn't make you a filmmaker and just because you own protools does not make you a musician. This is the worst of Spooky's many failures! Time to pick a career and devout your life to it instead of all this haphazard look I do everything just not very well nonsense. If you want to be a musician, be a musician. You can still do those other things, They're called hobbies.