Drumming in many forms has been a constant source of joy and upliftment for me. When I’m drumming I feel in touch with something so fundamental and compulsive that all the excess wanderings of the mind seem to come to a blissful halt.
Reconnecting with basic earth energy is so hugely powerful and exhilarating that I get a great sense of being renewed and re-vitalized. It is the ongoing delight that hassled me back to the area of feet in the soil to produce a second volume. It’s been five years since the release of the first volume. It’s been heartening and uplifting from listeners worldwide to this music. It has also been entertaining to hear how it’s been enjoyed as a grounding tool as music for body classes motivational workshops and just for plain fun!
There have been several factors for me that have made this new set of recordings special. One is the drums themselves. It was very inspiring for me to meet Arthur Hull – the celebrated American drum Circle, leader, whose rhythmic evangelism touched a deep place in me and whose vision of the power of drums as a tool for unity and community considerably expanded my perception of what drums can be. Most notably drums can be so wonderfully powerful as a tool to share our spirit. The ashiko and standing ngoma drums which he helped develop have phenomenal sounds and are the key to some of the new compositions. This is further enhanced by the taiko drum whose weight and depth has a great reassuring quality.
Another factor in relation to the changing and evolving quality of the music is the ongoing integration of the DJ into modern dance and especially trance music. This has instigated the creation of new musical instruments groove boxes that combine musical sequence data with drum combine elements in an amazing interactive way. This allows much greater live spontaneous elements to expand the musical possibilities in a very stimulating and uplifting way.
For me the successful blending of live organic performance elements and some of the exciting plugged elements now available makes for the richest and most dynamic blend. There are elements of both these areas which the other cannot produce so together they provide a compulsive synergy.
The actual range of sonic possibilities has broadened considerably too. Now working with 64 tracks of 24 bit sound I’m able to embark on complex sound layering frameworks easily and have the benefit of that increased sound quality translating into a larger and broader frequency spectrum soil or stratosphere or wherever they went to go!
Technicalities apart it is the simplicity and joy and a driving rhythm that help dispel the excess complexities of modern life. Nothing helps information overload to disappear faster than losing oneself in the stomp of a glorious beat. So it is my hope that these new compositions will provides just that kind of grounding opportunity again with the benefit of the expanded developments mentioned above hopefully accompanying a bunch of fun.
Feet in the Soil 2
Offers more celebrations of danceable energies centered in the earth following the success of the bestselling feet in the soil larger and deeper drums join the didigeridoo this time around with a fresh palette of sounds to set the party swaying.
Drawing further on inspirations form aboriginal and African lifestyles the music provides further invitation to join the groove kick off your shoes and get your feet in the soil!
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