Craig McIver’s debut recording opens with a four-and-a-half-minute drum solo, a one-man tribal assault that sets the stage for an idiosyncratic album of twisting, polyrhythmic original compositions. The sound is unpolished but electrifying, as McIver-drum kit augmented with tympani, electronic strings and marimba-challenges his adventurous crew of Philadelphian musicians to keep up. The concluding “Metronomic Suite” offers a different approach: It’s more relaxed and melodic, but disarmingly off-kilter.
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