Steve Reich And Musicians – Drumming (1987)

I'm sure I've mentioned before that my dad was something of a classical music buff, a taste which I have not inherited. His disdain for 'modern' classical music was summed up in his frequent quoting of Sir Thomas Beecham, on being asked if he'd conducted any Stockhausen replied "No, but I once trod in some".

I don't know what he made of Reich, but I can imagine.

So, it's an album by a noted minimalist composer, it's called Drumming, what to expect?

Yes, exactly that. Part I is seventeen minutes of repetitive drumming on tuned bongos, with occasional minor variations in the stress and emphasis around the same pattern. In Part II the pattern is repeated, but on marimbas, so it sounds much more varied, with the added subtle vocal intonations. On Part III we move up a couple of octaves, as the process is repeated on glockenspiels, with a piccolo in there somewhere. In Part IV all the previous elements are put together, and it's a rather pleasant amalgam of sounds.

I think this is going to deliver more on subsequent listenings as the patterns and subtleties emerge, but after an inauspicious, some might say tedious start, this is an interesting piece of modern minimalism

Link to a different recording of the same piece

3* - I'm not yet sure if this is genius or madness, so it's 3 stars just for keeping me guessing