Bill Bruford’s Earthworks - Stromboli Kicks (Stuttgart, 30th March 1991)

Visit Bill’s online store for exclusive and signed items: “Yeah, but you can’t play tunes on those things!” sneers the unbeliever, pointing at my drum kit. That depends on your definition of ‘tune’ or ‘melody’, but I spent some time with electronic drums trying to ring tunes or melodic patterns out of them. The melodic and chordal framework to much of Earthworks’ music was played in real time from pre-stored patches on the Simmons drum kit: that was the original blueprint for the group. This track ‘Stromboli Kicks’ is a case in point. The drumkit plays all the chordal harmony and changes colour like a chameleon four times before the horn solo at 3’23“. Granted, it took a lot of sweat and the electronic set was a cumbersome instrument that eventually became unsustainable, but I was at it long enough to prove the unbeliever wrong. Try ‘Bridge of Inhibition’, ‘Pilgrim’s Way’, ‘Stromboli Kicks’, ‘Up North’, ‘Hotel Splendour’ or a dozen others from the Eart