Planet Drum is the brainchild of
Grateful Dead drummer
Mickey Hart, whose research into world drum styles has yielded some interesting and important recordings. On this one, he brings together artists from cultures as diverse as India, Brazil, and Nigeria. The idea was for everyone to simply get together, start playing, and see what would happen. What happened, predictably, was a wonderful learning and bonding experience for the drummers and a recording that is, overall, pretty boring for those who weren't a part of it. Some of the album's best moments feature singer
Flora Purim ("Light Over Shadow," "Lost River"); another is an exciting program piece called "The Hunt." "Temple Caves," a fragile and lovely piece that defines more space than it fills, is another high point. But most of the album consists of repetitive, monochromatic jams that start out pleasant and lulling and quickly become merely annoying. Having the Indian percussionist "Vikku" Vinayakram play alongside
Babatunde Olatunji may make for a heartwarming sociopolitical statement, but the resulting music doesn't really go anywhere or do anything. Recommended only to the most uncritical panculturalists. ~ Rick Anderson