According to Harmony-Central.com, a new high-def version of the electronic drum pad, the Mandala is going to be released. Inventor Vince De Franco who founded synesthesia corp. worked on the creation of this drum, with Tool drummer Danny Carey for 5 years, to replace his old Simmons SDX electronic drums. I posted about Isis drummer Aaron Harris a few days ago, he is also a Mandala user as well.

“A new kind of synthesizer, the Mandala 2.0 packages a musical range so wide it simultaneously offers players the top of the line, most accurate model of a physical drum (via 3,000 professionally created, proprietary samples of the Black Beauty Snare Drum) — along with a library of sounds derived from more than 100 other instruments.

It plugs into a PC or Mac with just a USB cable, and its easy-to-use software comes with more than 100 presets for out-of-the-box functionality. Players also can create their own configurations as they explore and discover its astonishing audio range.”

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Another drummer that I’m a big fan of is Aaron Harris of the band Isis. Isis’ music, in case you aren’t familiar, is a blend of post-rock and art rock and has a heavy vibe to it, similar to Tool. A lot of the bands songs have large portions with no vocals, when there are vocals, they are more tonal than traditional, usually not emphasizing words but sounds.

Aaron Harris is the pulse of the band. Usually emphasizing weird accents and including a lot of syncopation into his playing, he tends to push and pull the songs, a bit like a jazz player.  His drumming through odd time sections is usually keeping a steady, simple yet effective approach, until Isis’ last album “In The Absence of Truth”.

After becoming good friends with Tool drummer Danny Carey, as well as tour mates, Aaaron Harris’ playing became noticeably more complex and involved.  His playing on this album defintily shows Danny Carey’s influence but also some new techniques all together. I highly recommend checking out his drumming on this album, it is some of the best I’ve heard in the past few years.

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*(Photo courtesy of Heilsound.com)