Steve Reich Drumming - Portland Percussion Group

[@joshdilly7025]

At first I thought, "Wow, they really should've cleaned up that unison playing." Then I realized this was written by Steve Reich and dirtiness is written in.

[@AndyYumYum]

+Josh Dilly I love the phase shifting. You think, okay what exactly is going on here, why is one of them slowing down? Then it all makes perfect sense just a few seconds later. Love love love Reich's compositions.

[@jamminjuice]

+fuck google plus Like you could play half as clean as these guys... Riiiiight. They're putting on a clinic and you're, well... just failing at trolling. So, troll on, Fail Troll, and keep practicing.

[@joshdilly7025]

I referencing around the 1:57 mark where it is written to sound flammy. I'm not trying to troll anyone. Next time trying watching the video before jumping to the comment section.

[@waydemcdonnell8069]

+Josh Dilly I believe he was referring to the comment by "fuck google plus"

[@JohnJohn-ir5hw]

A joke it is... and, as it is with so much "culture", hypnosis is its foundation. I like it but, that doesn't mean it's healthy.

[@GregJonson]

"Hey, you know how you guys have practiced hitting the percussions exactly on beat every time for years? You can forget all that now."

[@zettabyte0551]

what

[@silovitipanj4958]

But this IS hitting the drums precisely on beat...

[@jreynoldswrap]

@Edgar Leonarz I think the detail he's referring to is how one part will either speed up or slow down by a few bpm to get to that polyrhythm. Steve used to play two tapes of the same thing and then manually slow one down slightly until it synced into the next polyrhythm and returned it to the same tempo.

[@Bruno-hd9qo]

let the sacrifices begin!

[@lanwangji3882]

Bruno no Surname HALA HOO HAH HULA HOO HOO HA HA HALA HALA KALA GAHALA

[@lambert4256]

OOGA BOOOOOOOOOGAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

[@artofmusic303]

A piece that needs to be seen as well as heard. Was amazed when I first saw it performed in the 80's and thanks to KZbin, a wider audience can appreciate the visual aspect as well.

[@0prahTV]

Second guy messed up on the 826th beat.

[@moebius21]

Funny, I swear it was the 827th. Hmm, I will have to listen again.

[@NoahJohnson1810]

I thought I heard that also

[@nategraham3849]

Stop being lazy just count

[@hagengamradt8275]

I am sure it was all part of the performance

[@Kraftkollektiv]

Sorry. It was 827th!

[@polemicize4542]

You hear the tonal melodies of the drumming emerge with each player's entrance, and then linger in some skeletal form with each player's exit, reminding the listener that this most ancient craft - tribal percussion - lingers too in the minds of modern musicians, and perhaps always shall.

[@turn7boom108]

It's great how this most modern and mathematical of classical music manages to reach back to shamanic chants and stone age spirit incantations.

[@Stabacs]

Turn7 Boom most music has it‘s roots somehow back there, I guess?

[@brown9671]

Bro what the fuck did you just say

[@Terrapin9614]

@turn7_boom You might want to reconsider how you phrase pretty much everything in that sentence, or at least inform yourself a bit better about this piece. At best your comment is ignorant; at worst, it's unintentionally racist. 1. this isn't "shamanic chants and stone age spirit incantations," it's based on modern Ewe drumming which is a dynamic and living practice of drumming and dancing among one of the ethnic tribes of Ghana. To liken it to "stone age spirit incantations" is to treat West African music as "primitive." This is how people thought in the late 19th century at the height of European Colonialism. 2. Reich isn't being "mathematical" in these rhythms...he's working based off existing African polyrhythms which are phased in a loose and somewhat improvised way. Any two groups playing this piece will manage that phasing slightly differently. The score even tells the drummers to gradually slide from the first rhythm to the out of phase rhythm, but it doesn't "mathematically" notate that transition. 3. This isn't "most modern," this piece is 50 years old.

[@brown9671]

SmoothAtonalSound no one thinks you’re smart

[@Terrapin9614]

@@brown9671 sorry, I didn't mean you to think I was replying to you! I was replying to the OP. Your comment was right on...the OP was out of line with his comment

[@jamminjuice]

Such a clean execution of one of my favorite pieces of music for percussion ever! The precision of syncopation between all four members that is required for the clean execution of this piece is so incredibly difficult, but it is so beautifully hypnotic when performed as well as this group does. Great job to all!!! Additionally, it warmed my heart to see one of my fellow percussionists from the U of O School of Music in the lineup and playing so very, very well: shout-out to Brian Gardiner!

[@yourpalharvey]

When I saw this performed, Reich explained that he had found transcriptions of west African drumming, including the exact ‘out of phase’ intervals. He used that to create this piece. I wish he’d do this with anglolan/ Brazilian drums…

[@yourpalharvey]

Always makes me think of hearing djs synching up the next record

[@christiankortmann581]

this is also a personality test to the musicians. at about 7:55 the fourth one enters and kind of 'disturbs' the order and harmony they had build up. he leaves at 8:19 to come back in at 8:30 by constantly becoming louder climaxing at 8:40 with a more simple beat so the others might realize he wants to join their group. .. amazing.. reich uses the percussive mantra of this tune to symbolize mankind as a being that belongs to and interacts in groups since the prehistoric time where we used the percussions while gathering round fires and merely being cavemen. this is so subtile but you can feel it.. i love it!!

[@believenman]

Cavemen were pretty cool then!

[@danejefferson8565]

No

[@badcornflakes6374]

Sounds African

[@jonathanporter5223]

Holy, shit. That. Was. Insane. Like, what did I just stumbleupon? I was mesmerized and captivated, almost hypnotized even. Stellar performance. Bravo. BRAVO!

[@NameRequiredSoHere]

I think that's the point. A lot of minimalist music is made to invoke a meditative state.

[@PugCuber]

my dad showed me this back in 2019, a couple weeks before him and I performed _Clapping Music_ on typewriters at NMASS; I didn’t think that much of _Drumming_ until recently when I really got into Reich. knowing what I now know, this is such an incredible piece, and I’m super glad it’s had a nice long life so far by the way, I feel like some people underestimate how difficult this piece actually is. it’s incredibly easy to lose focus and forget where you are, and it can cause things to train-wreck really quickly

[@MaxDeVincenzo]

Anybody else hear how cool the reverb is?

[@PedroPetracco]

Max DeVincenzo Now I do. =] Thanks!

[@Oreoleoo]

Once I heard it I couldn't unhear it and now it's distracting me from the actual performance :(

[@prashantgarg9570]

how do you play the reverb?

[@pedro.claudino]

Some times sounds like hands clapping... Cool.

[@nuberiffic]

What? That was my favourite part of the performance. I'm pretty sure it's the entire idea behind Reich's work. It's about the emergent sounds that happen when music is played in unusual ways

[@Guadeloop]

Reich is the god of syncopation

[@DolphinPain]

@@MSILBB we wuz syncopation an sheeit

[@Xx_BoogieBomber_xX]

@@DolphinPain fuck off

[@harrisonbrand8985]

@@Xx_BoogieBomber_xX fr

[@--..__]

@@Xx_BoogieBomber_xX no you

[@--..__]

@@harrisonbrand8985 fr fr no cap fam the house down boots sksksksks go wig off sis! And I oop

[@origamigek]

That looks (sounds) very difficult. Not every drummer can play out of sync.

[@MasleyVystupoe]

You could try it yourself with both hands off beat.

[@maxsync183]

@@MasleyVystupoe i can play out of sync so well that it's all I can do lol. Yeah, I suck a little.

[@alejandrocorona1766]

@@maxsync183 haha

[@nicholaspalacio9672]

And some drummers can ONLY play out of sync! ;)

[@jonathanmosebach2921]

One word Larz

[@nerdadendem]

This is such a groove I love hearing how the parts interlace

[@percc_wave6941]

It's weird how you start to hear so much Melody from this much rhythm. Very cool.

[@terterpl]

This part right here 9:17-9:38 is absolutely jaw-dropping. Unbelievable.

[@samforryan468]

People with tubs and sticks doing what people with tubs and sticks do best

[@nicowolbert]

those phasings...just awesome.

[@paulmorinart]

Takes me back to listening to The Best Of Phil Collins. Thanks guys.

[@EvOorschot]

Amazing. Not only for the phase shifting, it's more like time shifting. I love it.

[@j.thomas1420]

2:18 n°3 join the chat [awkward contribution] 2:45 n°3 left the chat

[@jd233joel4]

1:52- sounds extremely difficult. But, to the ear it’s beautiful.

[@johnwitter3583]

This is my favorite video on here right now.

[@maryhales4595]

I love how Steve Reich takes one beat, turns it into a pattern, and phases that pattern through all the different percussionists. I'm not a percussionist myself, but I am a music major, and this is so cool.

[@WojciechSzaryComposer]

Thus far I have never known there is such relaxing genre of music :D just beautiful. Skills of these drummers are amazing.

[@InfinityEnterprises]

I literally applauded out loud to myself at 9:35. Such control. My god. Good stuff!

[@justinshaw801]

eventually the percussive sounds and the pitches of the drums become detached to the ear and even though you can still hear the sharp percussive noise, the pitches sound almost like a xylophone/marimba.

[@danlettuce8429]

Hahahahaha that was a trip and a half!! The time signatures going out of sync creates the most enjoyable drum patterns. Phasing, reverb....that piece was SUPER HIGH quality. 100%

[@ngn3171]

Great piece.... Amazing musicians. Bravo.

[@DouglasEKnappMSAOM]

How in the world do they remember what to play when?

[@oriza2]

only a few patterns are used here. each player has to remember 2 or 3 patterns. than once a pattern is set - by switching a bit of starting points - another 2 will play improvizations of the tones used in the 2 overlapping pattern. Than join all 4 players. and certainly there is a build-up and build-down of the pattern, as you see. This is the basic idea of the piece. It is very interesting.

[@NoahJohnson1810]

muscle memory

[@CannibalWHORE22]

Practice or just inherent talent?

[@rainepenny7900]

CannibalWHORE22 you can inherit an aptitude but it’s just love of the thing and practice “talent” doesn’t really exist to much in music(in my opinion) It’s different with things like running because you can inherit bone structure and the way muscle forms of course you can have a good ear naturally but that just helps you start off (all in my opinion)

[@CannibalWHORE22]

Djesse penny It’s a very good opinion

[@salvandorum]

Absolutely brilliant exposition of the transcendental unity of apperception.

[@robinvuorinen9402]

1:50 to 2:20 is ridiculously impressive

[@Scrapplefromtheapple]

I would like to believe that the paucity of comments stems from people being left speechless by this brilliant performance. Bravo!

[@BassForever44]

Amazing execution. Love the takes of the hands with the drumsticks only

[@krewecoumbite]

clearly a study in African music & polyrythms. Nice!

[@Jus10S84]

Yes. It also reminds me of Taiko drumming with all the rhythmic phasing. Also naturalistic. The earliest deviations from the beat remind me of drops of rain, dripping of a ledge onto a bucket.

[@krewecoumbite]

Nice

[@nuberiffic]

This is very western sounding to me. polyrhythms are not an exclusively african thing

[@nuberiffic]

In what way? Polyrhythms are a very simple concept that basically every culture stumbled upon

[@js27-a5t]

@nuberiffic Sure, but Reich's pieces in this style owe a lot to Ewe drumming from Ghana

[@morgan.n.hatfield]

I love the fact that this performance and the video of if highlight the meta-musical visual aspect of watching percussion performance.

[@purplefire2834]

This is one of my favorite "orchestral"/"Classical" pieces

[@tomt5745]

This phasing is ... just ... beyond ones mind. Wonderful!

[@chickenmuffin]

This is an unbelievable performance. Congratulations!

[@pausole-vilaro945]

This is honestly amazing

[@JamBear]

Steve Reich got me into playing Mali djembe because of stuff like this :D

[@agustinavarece]

i cant tell you how much i love this piece

[@karolina_sevcikova]

Jiří Kylián and his choreography Falling angels brought me here... Love it! ❤️

[@Darrylizer1]

Play it on double speed and it sounds like a v-8 with some serious timing issues.

[@lucynelligan9924]

blows my mind. every time

[@ramildozancan5131]

Não tem pra ninguem !!! muito Sério, Muito perfeito !!! AMÈRICA !!! The Land of The Promision !!!! Great Steve Reich !!! Great Portland Percussion Group !!!

[@nuberiffic]

Just love the sound of those rhythms speeding up to catch up with each other. I accidentally did something quite similar to this in a composition a few years ago. Wish I'd heard of this piece before then so I could have structured it a bit better haha

[@OneManDemo]

its unbelieveble, that you can any song of steve reich, play to this drumming an have a nu sound.

[@OneManDemo]

***** yes an a new (nu) sound

[@johnb.kirkland3926]

+Joko Modus Yeah I have been doing this all morning. I have these Steve Reich videos playing and listening to other steve Reich on spotify at same time. its pretty cool how they just work together. not just drumming either.

[@millennial8441]

Rhrythm was the ever neglected issue through Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romanticism. But in Modern and Contemporary classical music rhrythm is the "melody of durations", not the melody made of pitches anymore.

[@pathagas]

so beautiful. the syncopation is so precise and weird. gorgeous

[@kummer45]

This is intense, visceral, brutal, savage, uncanny, ominous and masochistically precise. The ear those people have and the coordination of the phase shifts according to the sound outcome is way too much. The level of skill for this is INHUMAN.

[@podiumman2]

I got to hear them live back in the 90's.

[@greygoryz.carpenter5302]

The best asmr trigger for me

[@rosapang2386]

revisiting this piece by watching this live video, still intriguing.

[@K1w1scot]

What I find incredible is the fact that there are 100 sad individuals that have thumbs downed this. Bless their misguided souls.

[@carlosclaptrix]

I like the freedom of oppinion. Don't you?

[@--..__]

Why are you bothered

[@agerven]

Now that is discipline and concentration. And hard listening with all those unintended but unavoidable millisecond out-of-syncs. Wonderful : the beauty of near, but not absolute perfection.

[@agerven]

Very cool. So Reich challenged both the players and the listening audience, and thus advanced musical detail one step further ? !

[@Darrylizer1]

@@agerven Yes, it's really difficult to do. I've heard other performances that were even more precise in the in and out of phase passages. Whew!

[@karenhoy3091]

To me its like the arc of a life, some years go smoothly and well while other times are more burdensome and out of sync.

[@wiez543]

This touched me

[@danielcropp8553]

this seems really difficult to play. sounds amazing though.

[@cate01a]

This sounds great. I remember searching for simply some sharp and simple music which'd be like clapping or tapping, and just that. Then I came across this which while not exactly what I was after, was really close. I love this because it's so nice to listen to. I don't get annoyed or anything that this is supposedly out of tune/sync (I don't notice)

[@zanderkagle4508]

That’s some amazeballs rhythmic modulation

[@MrYosiqueno]

amazing, what a great musicians

[@PoolzOfficial]

The reverb is insane.

[@pierrevoyard9709]

Totalement hypnotique ! En fait je découvre que j'adore...

[@hotelmario510]

Imagine J. K. Simmons in Whiplash listening this. Just absolutely losing his mind, throwing chairs. “NOT QUITE MY TEMPO”

[@The_Wandering_Mist]

Getting a Samurai Jack feeling

[@billyalexander5645]

What kind of music you like? Me- drums

[@gabchaim8232]

it had all of us dancing around the living

[@misterbuckethead]

supremely incredible

[@bradzabelski]

Great music. Great performance. And excellent audio/video production. Nice work!

[@ronlagrone6077]

Nice job, fellas. Arranging some Steve Reich for indoor ;)

[@MarkConnely]

Wow, the guys walking up will pick out a beat, and then leave, but I can still hear the beat as if they were still there playing it. Is that what's going on here, or have I been watching to many videos today...

[@samwallaceart288]

Mark Connely Cannot unhear that

[@garylaura6941]

Very Nice gentlemen!

[@LiteratureTodayUK]

Presumably this is just part 1? Anyway, I can only imagine how long this took to practice and perfect. These boys are so cool. I am simply phased by their phasing!

[@stephencowley8968]

I've just been listening and I looked at some of the comments. I couldn't care less who -if anyone- messed up, or when!! I find the music mesmerising. now it's finished I think I'll listen again, not so I can count beats but just so I can hear it again☺

[@frizza69villamil94]

The hell am I watching this at 5 am

[@3rdhand712]

always end up in a steve reich youtube hole after midnight for some reason

[@brooksnicols2411]

My neighbors were just not having a good time listening to me enjoying this

[@cactusdu7067]

je suis là car j'ai un devoir dessus en musique

[@richardmannheimer]

Das knallt echt rein, bin auf 'nem super Trip

[@MrJustnohobbies]

Richard Mannheimer was haste dir gegönnt? :)

[@peterzwegert904]

And I always thought as a drummer it's all about keeping the tempo. Obviously I was wrong.

[@grahamdunning]

So amazing how they do the phasing

[@tomerjacobson]

Is there an additional instrument's recording on this one? . Can someone explain the Reverb that was mentioned in other comments?\ Thanks in advance,

[@JUL-fn6iq]

There are no other instruments. The reverb is either added in post, or more likely is a result of the acoustics of the location they're playing in. Think of it as similar to an echo, but with the echo being so close to the original sound that it blends together, creating a thicker and more lasting sound. If you listen closely you can hear how the sound takes a couple of milliseconds to fade out completely, creating a sound somewhat similar to slapping the floor in an empty warehouse.

[@carloparcelli9212]

Cold, mechanical and confining.

[@ne6116]

It sounds considerably comfortable

[@mexicotaco0913]

I can see where King Crimson in the 80s get their influence from!

[@MegaKakumei]

Mesmerising. Count from 1.

[@pixelpi2255]

Our ancient (african) cultures did this every day. Alienly good.👽

[@abhayashrestha9172]

Any suggestions, where to buy the transcription of this composition. Thank you...

[@tonystevenson6068]

hypnotic

[@sebastianverney7851]

the music of water dripping off a roof from melting snow

[@lilabenford7159]

The people who disliked are the people who were on set and noticed the second guy messed up the 827th beat because they spent way too much time preparing XD

[@mitschcrafter6766]

great sample material.... might be cool for a remix.

[@o7k4vokb0ksp5n2]

This is like listening to Bloom by Radiohead but this time I *definitely* have no what idea what's going on

[@sparkelegance]

What kind of monstrous demon are they summoning?

[@MatheusMPL]

11:12 ohh shit, here we go again

[@skolamaria4090]

hard to hold on to - if you know what is in store, isn't it?

[@tryVUK]

Clean clean clean.

[@hagengamradt8275]

God Level!!!!!!!

[@gregkors8791]

Amazing