Dances With Woods - Global Drum Project

Dances With Woods - Spotify

Short one today. And I hope you like drums. Because what you're getting is drums. I like drums.

Global Drum Project was a briefly formed supergroup consisting of four percussionists: tabla player Zakir Hussain, talking drum expert Sikiru Adepoju, Latin Jazz drummer Giovanni Hidalgo and former drummer for The Grateful Dead, Mickey Hart.

They released a single self titled collaborative album in 2007, with many tracks consisting only of percussion. By taking advantage of the unique timbre of each percussive instrument they have created a melody out of nothing but scrapes, slams and bangs (the same principle can be seen in the wildly successful West End show Stomp or in the playing style of Bongo Joe whom we featured on this site a few months ago).

Today's Best Song Ever is 'Dances With Woods,' a dizzying tumble through drums that sound like tree branch cracks, leaves caught in an up draft, and the slamming of your heart as you race from a predatory percussive poltergeist.

I Wish I Could Sing - Bongo Joe (George Coleman)

George Coleman, better known as Bongo Joe, was a San Antonio, Texas based street musician. He played oil drums by beating them with hammer handles while singing, talking, screaming, rapping and whistling. His magnificence was captured on the album Bongo Joe (still available from Arhoolie Records), recorded in the late 1960's. The album is a wild combination of raw primal drumming, stream of conscious narration, and bluesy surrealism.

The track closest to a standard song is opener I Wish I Could Sing. Coleman creates an infectiously melodic percussion backing to his howls, whines and growls. He sounds unhinged but with his tongue stuck firmly in cheek. Allow this song to be your gateway drug into Bongo Joe's weird world of comitragic puppies, threatening everyone over a radio, and the wild screams of dinosaurs and women.