Category Archives: Free Beat Friday

Performed by Merlin Matthews on a vintage 70’s Ludwig kit, this free drum solo moves through various drum tones and timbres using broomstick, hotrods and sticks.

The recurring pattern is (very loosely) based on a “Mozambique” feel

Blog story about the recording of Free Beat Friday #10 – A linear drum groove is where you only hit every beat of a subdivision in the bar, but don’t hit anything at the same time. Which is kinda strange for a drummer as that’s exactly what we’ve learned to NOT do!!

Blog story about the recording of Free Beat Friday #9 – The hiphop breakbeat groove in this month’s Free Beat Friday is inspired by Synthetic Substitution by Melvin Bliss which was sampled by The Pharcyde on their classic “Ya Mama”. Our version is swung rather than straight though!

Blog story about the recording of Free Beat Friday #8 – A fast HEAVY Rock drum Shred-Up!….We’ve done a couple of up-tempo heavy rock drum sessions lately. So we were WELL in the mood for a bit of shred…

Blog story about the recording of Free Beat Friday #7 – A block rockin’ breakbeat!…. In case you didn’t get the reference (!?!) this month’s Free Beat Friday is affectionately influenced by a fairly well known track by the Chemical Brothers.

Blog story about the recording of Free Beat Friday #6 – A dancehall Drum Loop…. We recorded this STONKING dancehall drum loop back in December. So we can’t really remember! But it must’ve been cold and we fancied something steamy and exciting to warm up…

Dust off the EMU, set the Akai to STUN – this month it’s a funky breakbeat loop…

Lob some talc on the kitchen floor – it’s time for a dirty disco groove…

Oil up that fretboard with chicken grease, it’s time for a Prince drum groove…

This month, it’s a good old 12/8 half-time Purdie shuffle groove… We recorded a Bernard Purdie shuffle groove for Free Beat Friday this month, with a Jeff Porcaro style phrasing on the kick drum. The Inspiration The Purdie shuffle groove is a 12/8 half-time shuffle conceived by the great Bernard Purdie. The key elements that […]