I’m a drummer and this is my review of Ian Thomas and his drumming on the “Down The Road Wherever” CD written from the technical point of view, enjoy
1) Trapper Man – a very nice opening fill started from snare. Solid upbeat groove mixed with some ghost notes on the snare. In 1:21 a very, very juicy fill that I like the most. After each verse, there’s nice transition into a chorus. The part that starts in 3:15 needs a change in the rhythm or at least some variations, here it doesn’t happen, we get the same rhythmic pattern spiced with some computer effect, it’s a pity. During whole song we have the same rhythm, there is no playing in half time. All in all I like it.
2) Back On the Dance Floor – here the magic begins, a brilliant opening, up to 0:36, first we have nice ringing of cymbals, technically Ian is hitting bells of two different cymbals. In 0:20 a very nice half time groove enters. It has some hi-hat openings, ghost notes on the snare and some nice double-stroke fills. Really tough to play. These are the parts I really like Ian for. Similar stuff is in the “Laughs and jokes…”, but it has a different feeling. In 0:36 enters an eighth note groove. Fortunately it is not an upbeat. It is spiced up with some floor-tom hits, some hi-hat openings and ride bell hits. Actually the right bell hits are the things I like the most in this groove (for example in 1:06). It’s a pity that a chorus-entering fill are just two bars of sixteen notes on the snare and chorus-closing fill is the same. From the 3:43 there is constant beat up ‘till the half time groove enters in 4:47. It should be spiced up a bit in my opinion. Well c’mon playing the same thing over a minute is boring. Then the brilliant half-time ends the song, I really like to diminishing of the volume of the drums here. Perfect stuff. Overall, I think this is the toughest song to drum of the whole album. Drumming here is 10/10
3) Nobody’s Child – an ordinary groove played with stick on a rim of the snare. There are some hi-hat openings and syncopated bass drum hit in it. A nice chorus-entering fill on toms followed by an accent on a cymbal, presumably ride cymbal, equipped in a kind of small chain that, after hit, gives this shimmering sound . This is very popular in jazz drumming, but here it really does its thing. That’s mainly it about this song.
4) Just A Boy Away From Home – Almost the same entering fill as in Trapper Man, followed by a country/reggae groove, which is not very easy to play. Lots of things happen here. First, the hi-hat played with a left foot, keeps the pace throughout the whole song. Doing that he has both hands free, which he benefits a lot. During the slide guitar solo right hand goes on the ride cymbal, which really nice corresponds to the keyboards and guitar. There are a couple of nice fills, at last I need to say . In the part that starts in 4:22 I can hear some nice work on the bass drum. The minus is that, when the guitar turn down the volume a bit, he goes on crash cymbals as a base of the rhythm, that’s not nice here in my opinion, but fortunately he has his cymbals taped in order to reduce the volume, so eventually it doesn’t matter at all.
5) When you leave – here the drums are only the background. He uses brushes here instead of sticks. Drums are really down-volumed here because of the character of the song, but it should be like this.
6) Good On You Son – here, I don’t know what to say but, when drums enter in 0:37 Frozen by Madonna begins
Again the upbeat groove. I really like the sound of the cymbals here, for me they sound the best of all songs here. Listen to small crescendo in 1:28. In 2:23 a solo part begins. It’s really nice I have to say, has some syncopated snare and bass drum hits. During this part this “magic” triangle ping on the upbeat appears for the first time and goes on and on. In 3:56, a very nice double stroke roll followed by an accent with the guitar, I like it a lot. In the following chorus there’s also a unique syncopated accent in 4:18. What I don’t like eventually is that, except the solo part in the middle, there’s a constant upbeat. It should be changed in some moments. Traditionally after the last chorus the groove goes on and on without changing up ‘till the end.
7) My Bacon Roll – in 1:00 a groove enters, the simplest eighth note one you can imagine. Here Ian decided to use silence as a drum fill in pre-chorus and chorus parts and he repeats this every time. Too less accents in this song for me. In 3:00 again the triangle ping appears. Here it is very annoying in my opinion. It last exactly a minute. Wonder whether it was programmed or so . For me the song ends in 4:19, there rest is a skipper, doesn’t give anything to the rest of a song.
Nobody Does That – again the upbeat groove. Nothing original. Again the TRIANGLE PING enters in 0:28. It’s the third song in the row with this. Any ideas who played this bloody triangle? It finishes in 0:47 to start again in 1:07. In 2:08 solo part begins, which in my opinion bring nothing to the song. Drums going constantly the same, boring. The best thing about this part is that the triangle ping finishes after it in 2:28 to start again 20 seconds after that
Summing up, I don’t like the song, I even hate it. Drums do nothing interesting here, there’s Guy messing around with his keyboards, trying to do some DJ stuff, there’s also this triangle thing and in my dreams sometimes I hear in the chorus “Nobody likes that”.
9) Drover’s Road – drums are background here as in When You Leave, from the beginning, Ian uses only floor tom and some cymbals to accent a bit. In chorus a kind of rattle enters, but I think Danny played it. In the second chorus normal groove begins played on the ride cymbal with the rattle in the background. Traditionally it goes on and on up ‘till the end. Ian is relaxing hisself.
10) One Song At A Time – The fourth upbeat groove song on a CD, what’s more, in my opinion, it doesn’t fit in this song. Danny percussion neither. Ian is using rods instead of sticks. The sound is “lighter”. I need to say the same thing as I once wrote on a forum, Ian killed this beautiful song. Drums are really crap here. I don’t get his idea. Throughout the song there’s only one bloody dull snare drum fill. Furthermore, he doesn’t even change to ride cymbal. Disasterpiece. I won’t write anything more.
11) Floating Away – the same groove as in Nobody’s Child. Almost zero drum fills, almost zero spicing up. I don’t get this kind of playing. During the guitar solo, he changes into ride, that’s nice. A first nice drum lick is in the 3:28. Again Guy doing some DJ things here. It doesn’t fit and only destroys this nevertheless nice song.
12) Slow Learner – very well executed background drumming. Despite that it doesn’t mean it’s very interesting, because it goes on and on the same up till the end. Ian likes that I have to say, he likes to minimize his effort.
13) Heavy Up – just landed on a Caribbean island.
a big skipper, actually it’s a joke for me, I don’t get the idea of this song. Mark wake up. Ian plays the basic eighth note groove here, too much of this basic grooveeeee. Traditionally it goes up till the end. Almost zero drum fills, zero nothing.
14) Every Heart In The Room – the same drum groove as in Nobody’s Child and Floating Away. Bass drum is syncopated here and that’s the only difference. I can’t give any comments here, because there’s nothing to say about the drum patterns. Boring, boring, boring. This song is killed by Ian, the same as One Song At A Time.
15) Rear View Mirror – drumming here is just brilliant. This is what drumming is about. Change of the rhythms, drum fills, nice transitions and dynamics. Here we have everything. One of my favourites.
16) Matchstick Man – I can imagine Ian playing air drums here, of course the basic rhythm, just in case.
Summing up, I don’t like Ian’s style, he is uninspiring for me. He is not creative, lacks ideas and copies himself many times. In my opinion he is only the carpenter on Mark’s service. The best songs, when it comes to drumming are Back On The Dance Floor and Rear View Mirror. The rest is from good to disaster. Eventually, I like this CD more than Tracker, but the song like Nobody Does That and Heavy Up should not be here. Typical B-sides, or even C-sides
This the review of the CD from the drummer’s point of view. Thanks for reading
