For No One in Particular

by Rick AndersonFor 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 Café 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.