The Mars Volta Drummer Hears RUSH For The First Time

[Thenop]

Drumeo is one of my favourite YT channels, these are real drum nerds and they have the greatest stuff to watch at. The craziest drummers, the best drumparts. Some returning guests - Chad Smith is a show favourite - but this time it's Philo Tsoungui, she plays drums for The Mars Volta, a notoriously difficult gig (Dave Eldritch, Deantoni Parks, Thomas Pridgren and of course the inimitable Jon Theodore all preceded her, those 20 minute jams that go through changes more than any Yes song ever did)), and they present her with a drumless track of Limelight, for her to fill in the part. It's a fun watch, at least for me it is.

It cannot be underestimated how difficult the learning process for a drumtrack is that you did not write yourself. There is an intuitive thing going on when you make it up, I know I did a lot of them. Now that I am filling in for a gig I am fidning out, and that's actually pretty standard stuff. But try getting those accents just right, man that is tough for an 11 song set in 4 sessions!

Anyway, going into this Philo did not know what song she would hear and it turns out she didn't know it. I especially like what she did with the solo part, it really makes Alex's solo shine because of the free flowing form she uses. Lovely!
Her sound is very rudimental, which I like but might not be for everyone.
Absolute highlight are the snippets of the Drumeo guys during the playback of the original song at the end of the video, air drumming the Peart breaks in unison. And yes, they are Canadian.

Anyway, I found it 15 minutes well spent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80lys4YdafM

[Slim]

That's fascinating, sometimes it doesn't quite work for me, sometimes it seems to work better than the original (the beginning of the first take really made the tune vibe off the scale for me).

I've often thought Neil is a bit too sterile and technical. I remember watching a Zappa live performance on YouTube and I had a sort of epiphany. Terry Bozzio would have given Rush something they were missing. He was just playing with a burning, soulful intensity. A "groove", if you will.

Neil seems to have a bit of that on Test For Echo but nowhere else really. Lots of flair, finesse, panache but not a lot of soul. But this woman seems to have it in spades.

[Thenop]

Neil's T4E parts were largely inspired by recent drumming lessons he'd taken. I have the DVD from that period somewhere, great watch.

I find Neil is sometimes too analytical in his playing. The thing is, his technical ability was near limitless, especially given enough time to hone the part.

I agree this version is much more groovy, but at times a bit uncontrolled. Not a bad thing, just an observation.

[David L]

Brilliant watch!

[Nick]

That's excellent, love the shoe/sock combo. I agree that the solo section really brings something extra to the song.Think I might have a little crush as well.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Enjoyed the concept and the video, but just too rough and lacking in finesse. It was a privilege to watch Neil at work. He was without a doubt the best drummer I've ever witnessed. I think Geddy would be quite horrified to have to accompany some of those naive slamming sections.

[Slim]

Considering she's hearing this tune for the first time, I can't doubt that - with the same time for preparation - she'd have done a better job than Neil. She definitely does that already in parts.

But that's the nature of music; every generation builds on the previous generation and takes it further.

I saw Neil more than 20 times, but he wasn't the best drummer I've seen.

[Nick]

Certainly she's getting more from a much smaller kit.

[David L]

She desperately needs a gong

[The Picnic Wasp]

Bit of a bee in the bonnet about this one. I like that 😀! But if we're being entirely fair with regards to experience, Neil if my arithmetic is correct was around 28/29 when writing and recording this part. Philo is 32 at the moment I think. That's a lot of additional hours of development more than Neil and I don't think it shows. I don't think Neil was remotely interested in best drummer lists in any case so I shouldn't bother either, but stick 😀 many top artists behind NPs huge kit and they wouldn't know where to start. He was incredibly talented. I've been pointed to other "better" drummers in the past but I don't usually hear it.

[David L]

The criticism I see most is that he had no 'swing'.
Luckily, he didn't need any 

[Thenop]

They are in different universes. Objectively stating who is best us just ridiculous.

Bottom line: neither could outdo the other in each other's specific fields of expertise. Neil could have never freeformed this and Philo had no interest in over analyzing it, she states this in the video.

Technical prowess is only useful when applied properly.

[Fishy]

It's all horses for courses isn't it.. would Peart have suited the Beatles.. and Ringo in Rush.. for example..obviously not to both cases..

[The Picnic Wasp]

Also, are her lyrics any good? Can she ride a motorbike and how much Macallan does she drink?

[Nick]

As seen in the video, by some sort of chance she was using NP sticks!