Word: drum
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Other performances, like The Drummers of the Pan-African Dance and Music Ensemble’s “Drum Call,” were directly influenced by Haitian art. In one thrilling performance, Sidi M. Camara paced back and forth across the stage while he drummed with inexhaustible charisma. The piece was a medley of vigorous Haitian rhythms, displaying the vitality of Haitian culture. While watching the performance, one got the irrepressible feeling that the energy that animates Haitian culture is still alive and well. Edwidge Danticat, as quoted by Dean Evelyn M. Hammonds, said of the Haitian people...
...Soldier of Love” hit the same low-tempo, somniferous groove that repeats until it stops, briefly, as if for convention’s sake, and then resumes in another key. The rhythm section, the core of any decent R&B group, sounds too often like the drum and bass GarageBand loops characterized by seamless, emotionally-bereft rhythmic accuracy and a robotic inability to feel—it’s hard to imagine human beings creating this record. This is particularly problematic seeing as “Soldier of Love” eschews pure electronica and trip...
...figure down the sinewy and reserved melodic fragments that Adu shakes down with melancholic elegance. Here, her lack of obvious emoting benefits the song and her voice sounds more powerful than on most. The percussion is minimal—a tambourine shivering over the steady heartbeat of a kick drum. However, on most of the album’s tracks, particularly “Long Hard Road,” and “Bring Me Home,” the production isn’t enough to compensate for the weak songwriting and over-processed instruments, and the listener...
...Falling Down A Mountain” opens with the title track, immediately introducing the multi-layered, complex arrangements which characterize the album’s best songs. Subversive bass lines, syncopated drum beats and a tambourine lay down a solid foundation upon which wild trumpet riffs and trippy synths soon take over, creating an alternately jazzy, new-age feel. Stuart Staples’ oft-commanding vocals seem to politely refrain from overpowering the melodies, neatly weaving themselves into intricate tapestry of disparate sounds. An engaging prelude to the rest of the album, the title track exemplifies what makes the best...
While most of the album is immediately likeable, the few songs which do fall flat tumble headfirst. Track two, “Keep You Beautiful,” is a disappointing departure from the more audacious tracks. The weak drum beats and timid, painfully repetitive guitar loops invoke a stupor perhaps appropriate to some hazy, dim-lit lounge, but they fail to sustain the energy of the opener. “Keep You Beautiful” also lacks the diversity of the album’s better tracks; while a vibraphone and triangle rescue it from complete monotony, the song...