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Gavin Harrison and Sound of Muzak

by drumfreak on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 21:44

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Ever since we came back from Modern Drummer Festival 2008 where we witnessed Gavin Harrison perform Sound of Muzak by Porcupine Tree, we've been hooked on this song. From a Drummer's perspective, it's got an incredible groove, with killer transistions, and precise use of cymbals, splashes and crotales?.  Gavin's approach to this 7/4 time signature, with the transition to the 4/4 for the chorus with a smooth quarter note pulse on the ride bell leaves any drummer sitting in awe. 

Recently, I've spent some time researching Gavin, and on his Myspace profile, he's got this candid picture of him driving his drumset. This picture speaks metaphors for what drummers are really about. 

While Gavin may look like he's not so serious in the picture above, we assure you that once you listen to the music he shares with us, and his in-depth understanding of feeling odd time signatures allows us to break beyond the 4/4 groove and really reach inside.  Enough Babbling, here's a full video of Sound of Muzak performed live:

 


Remember, most of the song (except chorus) is in 7/4 so you can count it how you like (one-two-three-four-five-six-seven) or (one-two-three, one-two, one-two?). Have some fun, clap 4/4 quarter notes and count 7's. You can feel this song like nothing else.

You can listen to the real song on Playlist.com which sounds much better on the vocals and guita than this videor, but Gavin's live performance is still interesting because he plays the song with a little twist in the video above.

 

Sound of Muzak comes from Porcupine Tree's 2002 Released Album: In Absentia

 

The lyrics from their Discography page:

"Hear the sound of music Drifting in the aisles Elevator prozac Stretching on for miles

The music of the future Will not entertain It's only meant to repress And neutralise your brain

Soul gets squeezed out Edges get blunt Demographic Gives what you want

Now the sound of music Comes in silver pills Engineered to suit you Building cheaper thrills

The music of rebellion Makes you wanna rage But it's made by millionaires Who are nearly twice your age

One of the wonders of the world is going down It's going down I know
It's one of the blunders of the world that no-one cares No-one cares
enough"

 

 

Besides the recent trip to Modern Drummer Festival 2008, Gavin appears to be working on a Solo Drum album.  From Gavin's Myspace page:

"....Faced with the prospect of making a 'solo' drum album I decided I would
take a more experimental approach to playing my instrument, rather than
make a record of fast flashy solos and fills to try and show off my
technique. Drums traditionally have a purpose in music to supply and
hold a tempo. After all there isn't any really definable pitches coming
out of the drumset that you would want to try to play melodies on in
the normal sense.
But I felt there was still a way to express emotion from the drums
played with the attitude of "blowing" on a saxophone or "twiddling"
around on a piano. These "squiggle" pieces or sections (as I call them)
would start with me recording the drums on their own without any pre-
defined tune, arrangement, or tempo.
The only thing I would have as a guide would be the engineer signaling
to me how many minutes had past because I couldn't really tell how much
time was passing whilst I was in this "liquid" state of mind. Of course
listening back, many of the pieces turned out to be just too random for
me - but there were some - that I felt had a good balance
compositionaly between playing time and playing expressively "out there
in space" on the drums.
These pieces would then form the basis of a new composition with which
the brilliant keyboardist Gary Sanctuary would "react" with and overdub
to. Dave Stewart did an equally great thing as a " drum and piano solo
" section in a piece called "Big News For A Small Day".So we ended up
with tunes where (in certain sections) the drums were the "leading"
voice (in a kind of melodic but non solo way) and the rest of the
composition was built up around the original drum performance - as
tempo based or random as that was! Other, more groove based tunes
started life as "jams" between Mick Karn, Gary Sanctuary and myself. I
wanted to try and find some more alternative stranger types of groove.
Then other musicians would come and play on top / underneath / or
around the various rhythms and "squiggles" (when they occurred) and I
would have chance to edit their collective performances into a kind of
"collage" procedure."

 

Gavin also has two DVD's with corresponding books produced by Hudson Music called Rythmic Visions

"This DVD provides an in-depth look at the complete Rhythmic Illusions
concept featuring lessons on: displacement, modulation, subdivisions
& spacings, master modulation exercises, four-way harmonic
syncopation, five full-length performances, alternative audio mixes
with and without click tracks, on-screen notation, markers at the
beginning of each lessons in every chapter, subtitles in german and
italian. ?" -- Amazon.com

His other DVD is Rythmic Horizons

 

"Gavin Harrison's Rhythmic Horizions is a highly acclaimed, cutting edge
book, and has earned him ten-star reviews and was voted in the top five
of the best Drum Publication category by Modern Drummer and Drum!
Readers polls. As a solo artist, session drummer and column writer for
Modern Drummer, Drummer, Rhythm UK, magazines and member of Porcupine
Tree, Gavin has also worked for Incognito, lisa Standsfield, Iggy Pop,
Level 42, Lewis Taylor, Artful Dodger, Paul Young, Dave Stewart, Barbra
Gaskin, Claudio Balioniand many other."

 

Learn more about Gavin on his website

It's really nice to see that someone has it all figured out. Thank you Gavin!

 

 

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