Give Mobile time, and it will fasten itself, embed its patterns, and stay with you longer than you could have imagined a solo percussion album ever could.   Full text...

Anyone struck by Wilco's transformation over the last decade from alt-country stalwarts to sonic pioneers might put it down to the fluctuating state of Jeff Tweedy's mind. However, of equal importance to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born's textures and oddities is drummer Glenn Kotche, who joined the band in 2001 to make those two albums.  Full text...

Mobile shows Kotche not only as a part of a select group of informal percussionists, Chris Corsano and Tim Barnes (to name two), but also as a remarkably developed instrumentalist of immense resource: endlessly adaptable, versatile and, er, mobile.   Full text...

The best thing about Mobile is that one can devote as much, or as little, energy to listening as they wish. If music theory is your thing, you're sure to be rewarded for digging in deep and poring over every recorded note and written word in the liner notes.  Full text...

Kotche is a skilled improviser, electro-acoustic sound architect, and rock musician who has already recorded two solo albums for Locust and Quakebasket, and Nonesuch already has a history of involvement with two of his inspirations - American minimalist composition and Balinese gamelan performance. That all gives Mobile a certain resonance beyond that of the instruments its creator plays, and makes it likely that you'll play it more than an Alan White album, but maybe not as much as an Art Blakey one.  Full text...

Throughout the album the music is complex and unpredictable while never sounding improvised.   Full text...

Kotche has one of the most unique albums in recent memory going here, and certainly something that deserves attention on its own accord. His association with Tweedy's band causes a shadow, but proven by Mobile, it is one he can get out from under.  Full text...

The album builds, via more purist drumming exercises, to his tour de force, the 11-minutes-plus Monkey Chant. This rich and multi-layered programmatic piece is performed entirely on Kotche's extended, electro-acoustic drum kit; the liner notes include an explanation of the story behind the sticks: the monkey army's battle from the epic Hindu tale of Ramayana.  Full text...