For No One In Particular

Rate It! Avg: 4.0 (5 ratings)
ALBUM INFORMATION
EDITOR'S PICK // LIVE

Total Tracks: 12   Total Length: 59:48

Write a Review1 Member Review

Please log in before you review a release. Log in

user avatar

Billy Martin deserves his top billing

BarmyFotheringayPhipps

If anything, this set of free improvs (most of them recorded in front of a muted, undemonstrative audience) has a little too much Martin and not enough Weston and Logic. Freed from the groove-oriented Medeski, Martin and Wood, Martin usually takes every opportunity he can to do his Tasmanian Devil impersonation behind the kit, and his overplaying sometimes detracts from his collaborators. DJ Logic in particular is sadly underutilized. There are a lot of genuinely exciting passages here, but there's also a fair amount of aimless noodling.

Recommended Albums

They Say All Media Guide

For No One in Particular is an idiosyncratic album recorded by drummers Billy Martin (of Medeski, Martin & Wood fame) and Grant Calvin Weston with turntablist DJ Logic. The trio members came together in 1999 to perform at the BAM CafĂ© in Brooklyn, and the gig was so magical that they decided to try it again and record it this time. The result was this strange and sometimes self-indulgent but generally fascinating pastiche of rhythms and noises, in which Martin and Weston’s conventional drum sets, talking drums, gongs, mbiras, bird whistles, duck calls, trumpet, and other miscellanea combine with DJ Logic’s advanced turntablism to create a constantly shifting kaleidoscope of sound. Things don’t generally settle down enough to be funky, but there is sometimes a definite groove going on. At worst, things devolve into mere chaos, as on the basically unlistenable “Heart Blood” and “Hungry Ghosts.” But the James Brown-meets-the-jaw-harp funk of “Flashing Sword” is lots of fun, as is “Xyloids,” which appears actually to be based on a drastically cut and scratched recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Not everyone will have ears to hear this stuff, but there’s lots to hear if you’re willing to listen. – Rick Anderson

more »