You've gotta love those drums!

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Going through my Autechre and Squarepusher collection, I (RE)realized how awesome their percussions are. I decided to post here asking everyone what songs you thought have orgasmic durms / percussions / beats whatever.

Right now I can only think of a few songs:

Radiohead - Morning Bell [Kid A] (the song is awesome, drums are vital) Airbag [ok computer]

DJ Shadow - Building stem with a... [endtroducing] (shadow is great with percussions, and that song is one of his best)

New Order - Blue Monday [Power, Corruption and Lies] (not the most complicated sounds, but you know you love them)

The flaming lips, Super Furry Animals and the Beta Band are good at the field too....

BTW. Can anyone recommend good jazz drummers or jazz songs with good percussions?

― House in motion, Saturday, 15 November 2003 16:19 (twenty-two years ago)

i think my head just melted.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 15 November 2003 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Dave Brubeck - "Take Five" has dmn cool drums. So does "Sing Sing Sing" by Benny Goodman.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Saturday, 15 November 2003 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

flaming lips are the new afrika 70.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 15 November 2003 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I like the backwards drums at the beginning of Swamp Music by Lyrnrd Skynrd

― Matt Helgeson (Matt Helgeson), Saturday, 15 November 2003 17:21 (twenty-two years ago)

what songs you thought have orgasmic durms..

the erotic drum band.

― pete from the street, Saturday, 15 November 2003 18:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Any Coltrane classic quartet recordings....Elvin Jones is the man.
I've always dug the drums on any DJ Premier track. "Come Clean."

― ddrake, Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:14 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah that premier four-square just cant be beat.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:18 (twenty-two years ago)

up on cripple creek - the band
halleluwah - can
wouldnt it be nice - beach boys
i just wasnt made for these times - beach boys - i think i heard somewhere that that sound is someone playing a coke bottle or something?
leopard skin pillbox hat - dylan (live 66) -just that beginning roll or whatever you would call it at the very very very beginning
faces and places - ornette coleman (at the golden circle) - that shit makes me air drum every time and i hardly notice no one else is playing when charles moffet does the drum solo. he makes it musical rather than obnoxious.
and most anything by the recent flaming lips.

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:31 (twenty-two years ago)

oh god, it just wont stop!!

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually I agree with the thread-starter about Squarepusher; I was listening to "The Fat Controller" recently, was hit with this "good god almighty" epiphany about halfway through, skipped back to the beginning and listened entirely to the beats. It was then that I figured that one of the more interesting benefits of electronic dance music was the creation of beats that would be practically impossible for even the most virtuoso drummer to play -- ergo the expansion of potential rhythmic possibilities a hundred fold. Also, he sampled Trouble Funk, which was fun.

Also: Azimuth's "Jazz Carnival" has the best percussion of any disco song I've ever heard. I that seems like me being King Of Superlatives again, but trust me on this.

"STEVE DROZD, MOBY DICK-Dick-dick-dick-dick"

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Seeing this listed next to the Tony Thompson thread -- and noting Thompson hasn't been mentioned once here -- is depressing.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:36 (twenty-two years ago)

likewise, it just kind of pains me that we're 12 posts into this thread before anyone says EVERY CLASSIC JAMES BROWN RECORD EVER

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Well I don't think anyone needs this thread to inform them of that.

(EVERY CLASSIC JAMES BROWN RECORD would be an interesting contribution to "You've gotta love those guitars", though)

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:39 (twenty-two years ago)

nate..."right now i can only think of a few songs" and then they list radiohead and the flaming lips = THEY NEED TO BE INFORMED

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:40 (twenty-two years ago)

james brown records had the best guitars ever!

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Prince found a million kajillion beats from 80-87 that I dig.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, I sort of overlooked that bit. (Both "guitars" and "drums" can be spoken for via "GET ON THE GOOD FOOT", motherfuX0rz)

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:42 (twenty-two years ago)

If it wasn't for Prince (esp. Sign Of The Times) I'd probably feel bad about using one drum loop over and over when I record a song.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I really like the drums at the beginning of "In a Big Country"

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:43 (twenty-two years ago)

probably alone on this one:
those nasty, chintzy sounds Mr. Watts supplied during Some Girls, Emotional Rescue-era

― Will (will), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:45 (twenty-two years ago)

fiddo your "it just won't stop" is unfortunately placed, as 'Up On Cripple Creek' has fucking ACE drums

not to be bossy but something tells me this thread really ain't for you old bean

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Second the posters above re: Elvin Jones, Charlie Moffett, and Jaki Liebezeit (Can) who are surely among the godhead of drummers.

For records that are more centered around the percussion, rather than just including great percussion parts, might I suggest Steve Reich's music (eg: "Six Marimbas", "Drumming"). His influence on electronic artists like the ones you mention is immeasurable. Glenn Velez, who's played in Reich's group, has a great solo record called "Internal Combustion" that features frame drum and is superb (just got re-issued, I think).

Any record with tabla player Alla Rakha on it is sublime and wonderful, particularly his ones with Ravi Shankar and/or Zakir Hussein.

If you're into modern composers, Iannis Xenakis' "Pleiades" and James Dillon's "East Eleventh Street" are percussion-heavy works that will melt your mind.

Have you investigated Balinese gamelan music? If not, you definitely should.

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:51 (twenty-two years ago)

TAIKO

― gygax! (gygax!), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:52 (twenty-two years ago)

P.S.: since your handle is "House In Motion" I assumed that you didn't need to have Talking Heads' "Remain In Light" mentioned, but on the chance that it's a different reference, couldn't leave out one of my favorite rock albums.

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Yello: "Drive/Driven"
Donna Allen "Serious"

Speaking about drum sounds rather than drum beats or patterns here.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 15 November 2003 19:58 (twenty-two years ago)

"orgasmic drums" --> Sweet Emotion, Gimme Shelter, If You Steal My Sunshine, Show Me Love, Rose Rouge (orgasm forever delayed), every song ever by the Fatback Band

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 15 November 2003 20:15 (twenty-two years ago)

all devo.

― typo acapulco (gcannon), Saturday, 15 November 2003 20:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Eric Dolphy - Hat And Beard
This always makes me giggle like a merry meticulous marmoset.
Tony Williams is just about the most bombapp there is.

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Saturday, 15 November 2003 20:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Endless amounts of salsa, to the point where I can't be bothered naming individual tracks. Timbales, congas, bongos, cow-bells. . .

Lots of folk/dance oriented Arabic music.

Really.

(Why did I bother to answer? Anyone could have posted this for me.)

Also substantial examples in roots reggae/dub, hip-hop (at any rate, the stuff I used to listen to (which probably was 90% James Brown samples, so see dubplatestyle), but maybe some current as well, if I listened more. Beatles: "Everybody's Got Something to Hide" (not so far off from an Afro-Latin sound) "Long, Long, Long" (understated, but great drumming, to my ears).

― Rockist Scientist (Al Andalous), Saturday, 15 November 2003 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

AAAHHH!!! "Long, Long, Long" is a pinnacle of understated (and GREAT) rock drumming!

Rockist c'est le rock!

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Saturday, 15 November 2003 21:10 (twenty-two years ago)

varese- ionisation. art ensemble of chicago recs have some lovely percussion.

too many drummers...I'll start and stop with max roach.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 15 November 2003 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, and the flaming lips.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 15 November 2003 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

funny this thread should be posted now. I was in a pub last night with a video jukebox and John Farnham's "Your the Voice" came on and I thought "wow, the drum sound on this is fantastic!" Now, i'm not saying I think the song is good as a whole, certainly not with all those whooah-ooohs from the bemulleted one, but the drum sound is something special.

from a similar era - Bee Gees "You Win Again" has greta drums.

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 15 November 2003 22:24 (twenty-two years ago)

spalsh - "babylon"
clikitat ikatowi - "7 hours of drama"
ramsey & fen - "desire"
rufige kru - "terminator"
disco inferno - "it's a kid's world"
bubba sparxxx - "twerk a little"
seiji - "loose lips"
this heat - "24 track loop"
billy squire - "the big beat"
a guy called gerald - "nazinji-zaka"
led zeppelin - "moby dick"

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 15 November 2003 22:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Burning Spear: "Black Wa-Da-Da (Invasion)"

― Rockist Scientist (Al Andalous), Saturday, 15 November 2003 22:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Audio Two--"Top Billin'"
90% of every Jamaican song made after 1968.

― oops (Oops), Saturday, 15 November 2003 22:44 (twenty-two years ago)

This is a list I posted on another thread: best beats ever

Commodores--"Assembly Line"
Mantronix--"Fresh is the Word"
Skull Snaps--"New Day"
Melvin Bliss--"Synthetic Substitution"
Honey Drippers--"Impeach the President"
Tom Scott--"Sneakin' in the Back"
Grover Washington Jr.--"Hydra"
Average White Band--"Pick Up the Pieces"
Joe Tex--"Papa Was Too"
Funk Inc.--"Kool is Back"
Rufus Thomas--"Do the Funky Penguin"
Banbarra--"Shack Up"
Harlem Underground Band--"Smoking Cheeba Cheeba"
Eugene McDaniels--"Jagger the Dagger"
Bernard Purdie--all beats on Master Drummer series
Liquid Liquid--"Cavern"
Idris Muhammed--most beats he's done
Jimmy Castor--"It's Just Begun"
Lowell Fulsom--"Tramp"
Lee Dorsey--"Get Out of My Life, Woman"
Fatback Band--"Put Your Love(In My Tender Care)"
Incredible Bongo Band--"Apache"
The JB's--"The Grunt", "Pass the Peas"
Michael Jackson--"Billie Jean" (not just the drums)
Heath Brothers--"Smiling Billie Suite Part 2" (not just the drums, either)
Meters--anything on self-titled album
Marlena Shaw--"California Soul"
Soul Searchers--"Ashley's Roachclip"
Kool and the Gang--"Give it Up", "N.T."
Lafayette Afro Rock Band--"Hihache"

― oops (Oops), Saturday, 15 November 2003 22:47 (twenty-two years ago)

"Loose Lips" has got really really lovable drums

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Saturday, 15 November 2003 22:49 (twenty-two years ago)

The Motown bounce.

― Nihilist Pop Star (mjt), Saturday, 15 November 2003 23:12 (twenty-two years ago)

so many dirty three tracks, i can't even mention them all. jim white is the man

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Sunday, 16 November 2003 09:57 (twenty-two years ago)

lafayette afro rock band hihache
the track that krome and time sample for sound is for the underground. what is that?
melvin bliss synthetic substitution
deep blue helicopter tune
led zeppelin when the levee breaks
nelly ride wit me
lynn collins think
beach boys do it again
incredible bongo band apache
kraftwerk numbers
diwali rhythm

― charltonlido (gareth), Sunday, 16 November 2003 10:19 (twenty-two years ago)

joe budden - pump it up
the avalanches - electricity (harvey's nightclub re-edit)
dead dred- dred bass
prince - the ballad of dorothy parker
elephant man - nah lick

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Sunday, 16 November 2003 11:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm partial to Patrick Wilson's drum sound on Weezer's "Tired Of Sex." "My Sharona" is another favorite, as is Jerry Nolan's work on the New York Dolls' "Babylon."

― John Fredland (jfredland), Sunday, 16 November 2003 12:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Can
Can
Can

For god's sake, Can!

I second the Band.

Also, Every Picture Tells a Story.

Dr. John - Gris-Gris

― Debito (Debito), Sunday, 16 November 2003 13:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Drums = Vinnie Colaiuta

flawless technique and groove matched with an awe inspiring amount of creative insanity. there is no style of music that the guy is unable to handle.

― baht, Sunday, 16 November 2003 14:42 (twenty-two years ago)

>I really like the drums at the beginning of "In a Big Country"<

that is Mark Brzezicki. One of the many excellent drummers that made their mark in the eighties.

― bri bri, Sunday, 16 November 2003 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

>Seeing this listed next to the Tony Thompson thread -- and noting Thompson hasn't been mentioned once here -- is depressing.

be depressed no more.

Good Times
At Last I Am Free
Soup For One
Inside Out
I'm Coming Out
Like A Virgin
Let's Dance
Some Like It Hot
Harvest for the World
LIVE AID Zepplin and Power Station
I Wanna Take You Higher
etc.....

― bri bri, Sunday, 16 November 2003 14:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Cool beats - 'Radio City' Big Star. Especially 'O My Soul'. Also Rolling Stones records '68-'72. St Etienne - soft beats.

― Pete S, Sunday, 16 November 2003 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

whos responsible for the lush drums of Dr.Buzzards Savanah Band?
Coati Mundi dammit!

― thomas de'aguirre (biteylove), Sunday, 16 November 2003 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Boney M - "Night Flight to Venus"
which of course reminds me of...
Joy Division's "Atrocity Exhibition"

― Beta (abeta), Sunday, 16 November 2003 17:13 (twenty-two years ago)

likewise, it just kind of pains me that we're 12 posts into this thread before anyone says EVERY CLASSIC JAMES BROWN RECORD EVER

i just got here...

search out the epic version of 'cold sweat' off 'Say It Live & Loud - Dallas 1968' - there's an extended drum break halfway through that leaves me beaded with ecstasy every single time i hear it...

i also love the echoed drums on the outro to 'friday night august the 14th' off funkadelic's 'free your mind'; the tattoo that rumbles all the way through husker du's 'from the gut' and the lopsided stomp of black flag's 'gimme gimme gimme' always get stuck in my head too, though they're hardly virtuoso performances.

― stevie (stevie), Sunday, 16 November 2003 21:27 (twenty-two years ago)

prince - dance on. that's fucking amazing - the way the drum machines (i presume they're not 'live') just slip effortlessly in and out of the groove and into these absolute heart-attack explosions that pole-axe the song, before dragging it back into its funk... real spastic and genius.

― stevie (stevie), Sunday, 16 November 2003 21:29 (twenty-two years ago)

No Clem Burke? "Dreaming" is the pinnacle of OVERstated rock drumming.

― Keith Harris (kharris1128), Sunday, 16 November 2003 22:03 (twenty-two years ago)

seven months pass...

jAMIROQUAI - 'SPACE COWBOY'
rOY hARGROVE - 'POETRY'
4hERO - MENINO FT PATRICIA MARX (4hERO ARE DRUM EXPERTS)
TROUBLEMAN - EVERYTHING CHANGES
JAZZANOVA W/ SEAN ESCOFFERY - LET IT GO
DRUMAJICK - EASY BOOM
FRANCE GALLE - QU'EST-CE QUE C'EST
(CAN YOU TELL IM A GILLES PETERSON-WORLDWIDE JUNKY?)
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE - NO ONE KNOWS
what abt break beats? ?estlove's (roots, d'angelo, common. joss stone)faves he played on worldwide were:
BILL WITHERS OR SPANKY WILSON - KISSING MY LOVE

― jAMES fITTON, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 10:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Love Unlimited Orchestra (esp. for the hi-hats)

― Graeme (Graeme), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)

The Outsiders: CQ (whole album has outstanding drumming)

― Sean Witzman (trip maker), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 17:48 (twenty-one years ago)

ledZep = BONZOS MONTREUX
King Buzzo - ISABELLA
OTHAR TURNER N THE RISIN STAR FIFE N DRUM BAND - any

― TheHexxyChancer, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 17:54 (twenty-one years ago)

boredoms to thread

― Felonious Drunk (Felcher), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

The Waterboys' "Whole of the Moon" prolly has the best example of the BIG 80s SNARE hence recordeded.

― TheHexxxyChancer, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I love trap drums. Love 'em as much as anybody who's never seriously considered learning to play them. I worship drummers. Even mediocre or sloppy drummers earn my respect, and great ones enthrall me. Once, I embarrassed myself when a woman friend caught me playing enthusiastic air drums (thought I was alone in the apartment)! Etc. So I guess you could say I'm passionate about drums. With that in mind, here's 5 examples of godlike percussive greatness. (Just for the hell of it, I'm disqualifying any drummer whose name I've ever typed here in ILX.)

1.Tony Williams, "Hat And Beard" (w/Eric Dolphy)
2.John Wright, "All Lies" (w/Nomeansno)
3.George Suranovich, "August" (w/Love)
4.Tony Thompson, "Some Like It Hot" (w/The Power Station)
5.Robert Wyatt, "Moon In June" (w/Soft Machine)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

sixteen years pass...

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/12/here-come-the-drums

ILX poster Mark S loves drums.

― the pinefox, Saturday, 5 December 2020 12:42 (five years ago)

Fantastic article!

― change display name (Jordan), Saturday, 5 December 2020 14:31 (five years ago)

thanks for sharing

The emotional-intellectual energies of music are bound up in its sheer physicality, as bashed out with wood on skin or metal, with vigour or with deliberately controlled finesse.

x 100000; and because it kicks the most crucial of sections in the article, imo

there's a little something for all music writers in the piece

― where do all these unsold amps go? (gaudio), Saturday, 5 December 2020 15:52 (five years ago)

That's a great piece. Thanks for sharing.

― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Saturday, 5 December 2020 16:23 (five years ago)

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