Friday, July 14, 2006

MUSIC: Bridgetown Breaks



One of the more interesting albums to come across my world these days comes from Portland and is called Bridgetown Breaks (Volume 2). Check out their excellent website. Basically, it's a collection of original drum tracks from 10 drummers coming from Portland (Oregon, not Maine)..... Just drums, ranging in style from hip-hop to indie to jazz to anything your heart desires.

Drummers on the project include Kevin Robinson (Viva Voce), Danny Seim (Menomena), Kevin O'Connor (Talkdemonic), Amanda Spring (Point Juncture Washington), Drew Shoals (Fiction Junkies, Chris Mosley Trio), Charles Neal (QuiVaH), Mike McKinnon (Wet Confetti), Sam Schauer (Modernstate, Humans), Paul Alcott (Binary Dolls), and beatboxer Fogatron (Luminous Fog, Manic-D, Fogatron).

Since I'm by no means a drum expert, I put the album in front of two of my drummer friends and had them choose their favorite tracks. They overlapped on these four, but the whole album is quite excellent. Enjoy:

::: Amanda Spring - Shims (f/ Bridgetown Breaks V2)
::: Danny Seim - Courtney Taylor-Taylor (f/ Bridgetown Breaks V2)
::: Amanda Spring - Roboroboto (f/ Bridgetown Breaks V2)
::: Drew Shoals - Magnatite (f/ Bridgetown Breaks V2)

Those of you who enjoy drum tracks, sampling, drum-n-bass, or anything of the sort will really enjoy this record. Order the CD or LP from their website.

[Photo credit goes to Jan Tik. Found using Flickr, keywords "portland oregon bridge".]