Not many people know the band Russian Circles. They are a 3 piece-instrumental band from Chicago, IL, their music is typically long and exploratory as well as heavy and abrasive. They’ve played shows with the likes of Pelican, Tool, Minus the Bear, Mono and many others.

The drummer,  Dave Turncrantz, while probably almost never mentioned in most drumming websites/publications is one of the best I’ve heard recently. His drumming features some of the craziest rock beats, staccato jazz fills and heavy tribal tom work that are all perfectly executed. On the bands album “Enter” he displays all of these skills, a lot of which are played at fairly fast tempos, making his technique all the more impressive.

I’ll be seeing Russian Circles live this week, so I’m really interested to see what kind of set-up he has. I’ll be posting a review of the show up here.

Check out the song “Carpe” for a really good example of the drumming discussed here…

Russian Circles @ MySpace.com