Last Light

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A small masterpiece, this. To my knowledge, Eardrum first popped their head up above the parapets back in 96 on the second volume of Kevin Martin's Macro Dub Infection series of compilations. They promised a lot, but it's been a frustratingly long wait for the release of their debut long player, I'd say it's been well worth it. Eardrum are, essentially, two percussionists: Lou Ciccotelli and Richard Olatunde Baker. Over the last decade, Ciccotelli has quietly established himself as the most interesting avant-rock drummer in London, having put in time with, among others, ground breaking jazz-trance-industrialists God, Gary Smith's avant-rock power trio Mass, psycho-hiphop outfit Ice and the woefully-underrated Laika. Baker, meantime, has played with Cath Coffey, Akure Wall and sundry On-U projects. They're joined occasionally on Last Light by Nana Tsiboe (percussion and flute), bassist and electronics manipulator Gary Jeff (Ciccotelli's colleague in both Mass and God), trumpeter Matt Barge and Ike Leo on saxophone. Eardrum's m.o. is straightforward: to record, live, grooves and atmospheres - almost entirely on percussion - then treat them electronically out of all recognition. The results have already earned Eardrum comparisons with Jon Hassell, 23 Skidoo and African Headcharge, and not unfairly. This music takes Hassell's Fourth World gauntlet very seriously indeed, creating a fetid, tropical musical Interzone from the fragments ironically recorded in London. It rocks, as well, rarely letting go of the dark grooves that underpin it.