Omega New Age Directory
Drum Spirit
Combining the pulsing, rhythmic sounds of exotic drums and percussion from Africa, Cuba, Brasil, America,Tibet, India, Morocco, Pakistan and the Phillipines with ethereal female chanting, Jim McGrath captures the spiritual essence of drumming,and takes the listener on a sonic sojourn into the beating heart of the earth in this new release that virtually defines "World Beat"
Metagrooves
Drum Spirit
Polyrhythms speak to the internal primal urge in all of us. As archetypal as myth, a rhythm can actually entrain with our own bio-rhythms and bring us to a place where all the world is nothing but the heartbeat of the eternal. Drum Spirit is a pure, driving rhythmic interplay of multi-tracked, world percussion without any synthesizers or over-production to clutter up the tracks. Close your eyes and lose yourself in the primitive landscapes suggested by McGrath's dextrous use of the djembe, udu, bodhran, bongos, doumbec, congas, tar, berimbau, bells, shakers, didjeridoo, and djun djun. Drum Spirit is a versatile vehicle for McGrath's stylings. It's Tribal- Ambience and African and Middle- Eastern grooves are great to dance to.This music is like a cross-cultural communication, drums sending a message accross the mountains and the plains to the next village... deep... deep in your brain. An exotic terrain, the rain forest of nerve ganglia and synapse response networks. A tiny mountain village where all of your robotic programming gets jammedby the sounds of the jungle. Your leg starts twitching and your butt starts moving from side to side as the pulse of the percussion sends a signal from your right hemisphere to your left The message is to let loose, let it flow and let go. In the universe of McGrath's Drum Spirit, animal hide stretched over various gourds and cylindrical wood is pounded, tapped, caressed and beaten in time to the larger manifestation. Drum Spirit, morphogenicfield or conceptual idol, the Universe has a mind of its own and McGrath taps (pun intended) into it. A multi-purpose CD. Highly recomended.
-Miklin Brennan-
NAPRA
Drum Spirit
Sirens' voices lure you through the first track, a fertile "Garden of Eden", a three dimensional jungle that pulsates with warm rain and inquisitive lifeforms. "Tar Groove" takes you even deeper; a heavy rain pounds the umbrella leaves, you approach a village, alive with passionate drums and seductive singing. Suddenly, the sun breaks through the sticky air with a sparkling of chimes, and you ride into the spirit world accompanied by frog songs. Once in amphibi-heaven, you boing from drum head to drumhead in gay abandon, (Honest!) Each track tells a tale, an adventure with intriguing and dreamy soundscapes heavy with the perfume of rhythm and the mysteries of the night. It's pure magic, with all natural sounds and excellent use of the human voice.
-Carol Wright-
Aquarius
Drum Spirit & Percussive Environments
The albums named Drum Spirit and Percussive Environments accurately
describe what you'll find when you play them. Jim McGrath is the drummer
behind the recordings and they are great for trance dance or vigorous
physical workouts. And if you enjoy going to drumming circles or just
playing the drum at home for meditative purposes, and are looking for ways
to sharpen your skills, you can put these on and work out with them. Where
his album Soul Dancer was faster paced, Percussive Environments keeps more
of a medium tempo that moves at a steady pace. The variety of drums and
percussion instruments he uses set up the interlocking rhythms which open
the way to trance. On all his recordings he uses vocalists to add another
non-verbal layer to the tracks, but he makes the most use of them on Drum
Spirit, which also has the greatest variety of pacing among the tracks. His
mix of elements is very tribal and shamanic.
--Dan Liss--