Tim Barnes is one of the most prolific and exciting drummers to have been working within the experimental and indie rock universe across the last three decades. His numerous percussive contributions include classic records from the likes of Stereolab, Matt Valentine & Erika Elder, Wilco and many others. Chances are, if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve heard Barnes’ work many times over by now.

In recent years, Barnes has been dealing with a neurological illness that significantly impacts his communicative abilities. Thankfully, his condition hasn’t affected his playing capabilities. In response to his diagnosis, his good friend and collaborator, Ken Brown, set out on a mission to keep Barnes well attuned, so in 2023, he ensured that Barnes would continue playing in as many distinctive scenarios as possible, and as often as he could. This deep jam record is the result of those engagements, with the first side being cut live all across the nation, and the flip being produced in the studio.

Throughout the record, Barnes jams with other notables like Tara Jane O’Neil, Britt Walford, Chris Forsyth, Ryan Jewell and Doug McCombs. The sheer talent present in these recordings is fully complimentary, with each artist bringing out the best of the other.

Every piece on this record is entirely unique, so it’s best to highlight each one individually.

The opening track, “Metamorphosis Alpha,” features buzzing doom drone guitar, howling feedback and synths and machine gun-like snare drills. With Barnes’ tight, cycling rhythms leading the fray, the whole track whirls and churns like a category 5 hurricane. The piece eventually boils down to a haunting bed of meditative space rock, and you find yourself wondering, “how is this not a late 70s Can bootleg?” At 25 minutes, this is a hell of an epic.

Following that opener isn’t an easy task, but the reverb-soaked “Right to Roam” is rich with tightly-wound motorik beats, liquified Carlos Santana-like guitar lines and hypnotic polygrooves. So it is indeed up to the task.

“Inside Energy,” meanwhile, is a synth-lead wonky kosmische boogie, sounding very much like what Neu! could have been like if they looped in members of Suicide.

The next track, “I Know You Walk in the Wilderness,” is a sludgy cosmic funk that resembles a Wet Tuna jam being melted down to a thick syrup.

Track five, “Gamma World,” is a mysterious droning piece that floats you over vast rippling astral oceans, with a mechanical beat keeping you tethered to something terrestrial. This could easily be a new soundtrack for the Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite segment in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The final track, “Backwards Before Dawn,” features clanking cycling beats, a hazy celestial atmosphere and throbbing syncopated swamp bass lines that lock into mesmerizing Möbius strip grooves. Rich with Irmin Schmidt-like truncated fills and kaleidoscopic polyrhythms that crash out on metallic, punchy drums, this is a track that all Krautrock heads would appreciate.

Throughout these six phenomenal performances, the legend that is Tim Barnes shines as brightly as ever. Click here to get your copy on CD or digital from Island House Recordings today.

-KH