Drums for days! Master percussionists Valentina Magaletti (Raime, Tomaga) and Julian Sartorius synch and spar in four parts produced by psych-funk drummer Malcolm Catto for the ever-searching Marionette label Recorded by Catto at Quatermass Studio, London, and edited by Swiss artist Sartorius, the session sees the duelling drummers dance around each other in swingeing permutations of syncopation made even more intricate by Catto’s pointed recording and deft dubbing. But make no mistake this is no free jazz bruk-out or attempt to show-off and outdo each other. Rather, ideas of funk and rhythmelody are key to all parts, helming the LP in a naturalistic, sloshing cadence that speaks as much to endlessly grooving West African and Caribbean traditions as much as the explorations of those styles by Burnt Friedmann or even Faust or Bruno Spoerri experiments. Both fluent in myriad drumming styles, yet patently in possession of their own sense of meter and purpose, Magaletti and Sartorius instinctively mesh in a timeless style that could have emerged at any point between the late ‘60s and now. On the A-side they tentatively feel out the recording space and each other’s reach with the cloven-hoofed patter and fizzing dynamics of ‘Sobaka’, leading to some remarkably pendulous tekkers, before ’Sulla Pelle’ sees them space out with the dubbing and allow noisy chaos to infiltrate the soundsphere with a delicious mix of psychedelic sensuousness and restless ruggedness. The short sharp shuffle and seething background noise in ‘Tre Porte’ follows, sounding a bit like the rhythm section to Pierre Henry & Michel Colombier’s ‘Psyché Rock’ (aka the Futurama theme tune), perfectly setting up the album’s finale and highlight in the clipped swagger and twang of ‘Micro Tormento’ in its reticulated, polymetric formation.