The title at YouTube claims this to be the greatest drum video ever … and they just may be right about that!

Bernard Purdie is one of the original originators in R&B drumming, right up there with Earl Palmer, Smokey Johnson, Charles “Hungry” Williams, Clayton Fillyau, Melvin Parker, Jabo Starks, Clyde Stubblefield, Zigaboo Modeliste, Al Jackson, James Gadson … all THOSE guys.

If you call yourself a drummer, this is essential viewing.

The Purdie 12/8 Shuffle (Part 1):

The Purdie 12/8 Shuffle (Part 2):

Here they are, the original Headhunters just grooving madly. Mike Clark is just so funky and his grooves are so unique and tasty. He also has a great tone on the drums. Of course, Paul Jackson is no slouch either.

This (both parts one and two) is one of my all-time favourite drum and bass videos. Mind-blowing stuff:

Part 1:

Part 2:

For years, I could never figure out what Mike Clark was playing. But these videos piqued my interest in his playing so I went and bought his drum book. Great stuff with excellent ideas on how he achieves his grooves with grace notes, linear concepts and accents in unexpected places. Check out for yourself, there are some great (and very challenging) patterns in there.

Mike Clark - Funk Drumming: Innovative Grooves and Advanced Concepts

Mixing Audio - Roey Izhaki

It’s about time!

Over the past two months, I’ve been working through a new book on mixing audio from Roey Izhaki. Considering the fact that the field of mixing audio has been around so long, it’s somewhat odd that it’s taken this long for a book to come out that truly delves into all of the nuts and bolts of audio mixing. Sure, there are lots of other books out there, but these all tend to contain hearsay (i.e., interviews with famous mixers), vague descriptions, or highly technical discussions with little hands-on advice. So this new book from Izhaki is definitely filling a niche that has been achingly empty for very long.

Izhaki’s book is truly impressive in its scope for it really goes into depth across the entire bandwidth of mixing topics. There are many excellent graphs to illustrate key concepts and tons of audio examples are included on the DVD that comes with the book. Furthermore, there is even a website with a forum and some more information. Yes!

The only flaw is that the book should have been properly edited before publishing, because it is filled with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. It’s still highly readable, but these tend to reduce the impact of the book a little.

Buy it at Amazon or your favourite bookshop.

Well, I think the German football team could use with some reinforcement following their less than spectacular sophomore effort versus Croatia.

They lost 2-1 and seemed very normal throughout the game, displaying none of the commanding presence that they had shown during their 2-0 defeat over Poland in game 1.

So here’s a song that I produced together with Daniel Lauer from Blindflug together with Patrick Kukwa and Claudius Staudte from Captain Zorx Stimmungsattacke.

So Team Germany, go tell the Austrians to stay in the kitchen and keep away from the football field!

Have a listen to:
Volker Rachow & die Bergvagabunden - Auf der Bergtour 2008!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.