Man of magic, man of faith, and a voodoo doll sitting on his shoulder
Can you remember how you felt listening for the very first time to A Guy Called Gerald’s “Voodoo Ray”? Replace his name with The Knife or Kraftwerk, Felix Da Housecat or The early Chemical Brothers, it doesn’t really matter. Now, even if you are, as the author, way too young for experiencing it at first hand, there lies some kind of epiphany in modest beginnings and the moment you listened to them. Maybe you gazed about “Heartbeats” caressing but odd melody or you felt the force of “The Brothers Gonna Work It Out” for the first time. To put this to an end: it’s quite the same with Drums of Death, electronic wizard / producer from Scotland.
Watching his now released video to “Won’t Be Long” is a charming exercise. Enigmatic pictures team up with a nervous beat, and both alike never seem to rest. This mirrors native musician Colin Bailey – Drums of Death’s alter ego by day – and his recent lifestyle. A lifestyle which in the past two years brought him into Berlin-based Peaches’ music studio and on tour with Hot Chip in the US. Plus doing euphoric live sets has already him a reputation for being a force on stage.
Back to the video. DoD’s characteristics are depicted and yes, he’s a Voodoo magician, his beats are pumping and haunting. You have to believe in something after all, better deal with it. Is it romance, as the artist himself credits one of the main attributes to his Debut “Generation Hexed”, or is it just plain nightmare? Well, as with many things that happen in the night, it’s hard to tell. The lyrics are about lost pleasures, “standing strong through the winter” and not taking in to pressure. That doesn’t sound doomed, but then again, the video fully embraces that notion. And talking about doom, we’ve finally pictured DoD’s persona in all its dark glory.
Now, as DoD’s Album was being released on Greco-Roman already in September last year, and the lead single “Won’t Be Long” – oddly enough – followed just recently, Colin Bailey is on a mission. A mission to destroy his enemies and arm his folks, a trek to bring old-school house and drum and bass onto BBC one and your uncle’s car stereo. He might as well succeed, he might as well fail to do so, but that really doesn’t matter. Being a Scot, he will most likely be able to deal with both effects.
Anyway, Voodoo keeps moving. It is an ambivalent art that came in waves and continues to seek attention. Now this year, the EPs “Black Waves” and “Red Waves” reigned in the wake of DoD’s growing reputation, building and expanding club sounds and darker shades of the Scot’s Pop persona. “Cold Lazarus” is an eerie execution in acid house expertise, “Tear The Box Apart” is old-school rave par excellence, and other tracks such as “I Can’t Take It” are broadening the dancefloor further, opening doors to the early Nineties. The day will come for this area of enormous size, painted all black. It will be magick, people will be, well, dancing, you know, massively.
One might be ready for that.
For more information, see
> myspace as well as > drumsofdeath.com
Sven Job