Prophecy

Australian drummer and improviser Laurence Pikes third album in as many years was conceived as his home country was being ravaged by bushfires. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, its citizens were already used to staying indoors and wearing face masks to protect themselves from contaminated air. The entire sequence of events could be viewed as the fulfillment of some sort of apocalyptic prophecy, inspiring the title of this album. Pike responds to all of this with his compositions for drum kit and sampler, which he worked on at his home for several weeks, then recorded in a single day of studio sessions, as he did for his previous two albums. Prophecy doesnt exactly convey the sense of apocalyptic dread that one might expect, but there is a tense undercurrent to pieces like Nero, which seems to have an eerie, distant horn calling out from a fog of industrious looped cymbals and polyrhythmic drumming. Pikes playing doesnt sound furious or cathartic, and his style is never aggressive, but the complex rhythms of tracks like Heart of Sky and Rapture show him at his most forceful. Other times, his playing has more of a detached flow, shaping the keyboard notes of opener Goldens into waves rather than providing a steady beat framework. Prophecy is perhaps the albums richest, most soothing moment, with foaming synth textures laid over swelling cymbals and chimes. Reacting to a time thats hard to process, Pikes music is never simple or easy to make sense of, but his unconventional ways of assembling rhythms and textures are intriguing and rewarding. ~ Paul Simpson