My two favorite drummers in the world are Elvin Jones and Tony Williams. Even though I am primarily a death metal and grindcore musician, when I think about drummers whose musicality and feel that I wish I could copy, those are the first two that come to mind. I first became aware of Elvin Jones through his work with John Coltrane, on the 1960 LP "Coltrane's Sound." I didn't think anything special of him at first; I thought he was a rather standard jazz drummer. I preferred Art Blakey's racuous energy or Billy Cobham's looseness. But when I listened to "Sun Ship," I fell in love how free and energetic his sound was. His drum solos struck me as very unlike the prog rock drum solos I was more familiar with. They seemed to be less concerned with rhythm and more with texture, like a noise artist.

I recorded this track on drums first: a Tama Imperialstar kit with Evans heads, stock Meinl cymbals, and a Speed Cobra. It was miked with a single Samson C02 condenser 7 feet away from the kit, about 4 feet off the ground. I then improvised guitar on top of it, attempting to visually follow what I played in my DAW, with a Strandberg Boden OS7 into an Fractal AxeFX 2. My patch chain is a Zen Master into a Mr Z 38 into a 1x12 Triptik cab IR. I copied the first phrase I played on my Ibanez SR505 bass, which also used the Fractal AxeFX 2, into an Ampeg SVT sim. I attempted to recreate the energy playing against myself and improvising something that would contrast with the phrases on guitar. On vocals I used a Shure SM7b and did some standard grindcore vocals.

I think my intentionality is still fairly low on drums. After recording the debut Ripped to Shreds album "埋葬" late in September to October 2017, I became depressed with how much editing and punching in, or outright fakery, was required, and resolved to have other more capable drummers handle the execution of my ideas from then on. I then stopped practicing drums for almost 2 years. In June of 2019, I played my first live shows in Taiwan with Ripped to Shreds and met Harlan (Fake Meat/Bodies Lay Broken/many other bands), and he invited me to play guitar with Extremely Brutal at Antimusic Fest 5. After practicing the EB set, I stole his riffs to record the Houkago Grind Time demo. I was fed up with the sound of drum machines, having used them for the Skullsmasher album and multiple other releases throughout 2019, and tried drumming again. I was pleased with the sound that resulted. I hope in another 2 years I can look back on this track and cringe at how naive my drumming is.

I'd like to thank Alex M. for giving me the courage to share this with everyone.