Hamid Drake & Bindu - Blissful

RogueArt 11

Besides the common denominator of Hamid Drake, the second incarnation of Bindu bears little resemblance to its predecessor. The first ensemble attached to the moniker featured the drummer in the company of a formidable phalanx of horns. This time out the sounding board is a battery of strings, along with vocalist Dee Alexander who sings lyrics lifted from translated Indian Ramprasad poems. Rhythm in myriad guises predictably frames each of the pieces and Drake sounds his usual supple and reflexive self whether working off kit, tabla, bata or peripheral percussion. Guitarists Joe Morris and Jeff Parker join the bass team of William Parker and Josh Abrams. Morris also handles banjo, his brittle cyclic riffing sounding almost oud-like on the invocational “My Blissful Mother”. Parker hoists shenai in lieu of bass, leaving Abrams to ably handle the bottom end. As with much of the music here, the sum feels at least partially undercooked in its discursive path from onset to end. The effect is sometimes akin to that of a celebrity “drum circle” where the talent isn’t commensurate with the relative tenuousness of the chosen material.

The dancing plectrums of Morris and Parker dominate “Playful Dance at Soma” and make for a promising start. Drake joins in with a slinky reggae groove flanked by the bassists’ fat pizzicato braid. Parker and Abrams coax control for a brief interlude of their own, but it’s largely the guitarists who court the spark of Drake’s attention. “Visions of Ma” couples Alexander’s soulful wordless cooing with Drake’s frame drum undulations. “Supreme Lady Victorious in Battle” echoes some of the ungainliness of its title. The overlapping rhythms jibe precariously with Alexander’s spoken-sung text of Eastern religious imagery. Awash in a shambolic rhythmic stew of shenai, guimbri, banjo and bata, “Only Longing of My Soul” is another chancy enterprise that yields mixed outcomes. “There is Nothing Left But You” centers on another prayer this time colored by Parker’s doson ngoni, which settles on a repeating riff that enhances the meditative mood. At nearly a quarter of an hour it clocks a bit long and Alexander’s litany of African American luminaries in the closing minutes makes for particularly axiomatic gruel.

Earnestness and good vibrations are present in abundance, but neither element is enough to counter the perception that the project could’ve benefited from a bit more prep time and ambition. Tuneful, delicate and instantly charming, Drake’s “The Beautiful Names” suggests a promising template alternative of brevity and focus, but sadly it’s the album’s final cut. There’s interplay of interest here, but compared to the consistency of the first Bindu conclave the album consequently comes in second.

~ Derek Taylor