Opening up with a full-fledged assault on the senses in a nearly Brazilian Carnival mode,
Ramin Rahimi's
The Pulse of Persia has a good deal to say about pulse, if perhaps a little less to say about Persia. After the initial salvo, which itself is possibly worth the price of admission, the sound slows down a bit. "Dance" is a bass-heavy track with elements of Indian percussion embedded within, and "Eastern" brings the ney into the picture strongly, evoking a more oriental tone. With "Technical Friendly Conversation," a basic drum kit has some interplay with the more traditional percussion with mixed results, and "Butterfly" is a bit of modern flamenco fusion -- a nice guitar holding down the fort while the massive percussion set melts into the background. The music gets a bit unremarkable for a few songs, eventually rousing itself back into a semblance of energy with the aptly named "Heart Attack." While that track moves back and forth between drum kit noodling and more intense rhythmic interludes, the album doesn't get fully into its original levels until the very end, with a bit of intricacy in "Acceleration" and some slower taiko-like rhythms in "This Is the Daf," using the depth of the frame drum for all its worth. There's massively interesting stuff on
The Pulse of Persia, but it tends to be buried under so much standard fare that it's difficult to determine the value for a casual listener.
Rahimi is an excellent modern musician, however, and may just be the tipping factor to make this a decent introductory album. ~ Adam Greenberg