In October of 1985 Tom Waits released the album Rain
Dogs. The album was an instant classic and marked a
new sound for him. A rough, dirty neo-blues style
with awkward rhythms and hard edges. Part of the band
that contributed to that sound was drummer and
percussionist Michael Blair. His highly personal
instrument set-up which included a mix of regular
drums and odd bits and pieces like trashcans, bedroom
furniture and rusty bicycle frames fit perfectly with
the sound that Waits was looking for. The combination
of Michael's timing, expression, and junkyard sounds
created a rich and useful range of musical textures
to accent Waits' intricate storytelling. Michael
Blair also played and toured with Waits on Franks
Wild Years, the follow up to Rain Dogs, and later
became an integral part of the recordings for Elvis
Costello.s Spike (1989) and Lou Reed's Magic and Loss
(1992). Spike became Costello.s most commercially
successful and sonically adventurous album to date.
Michael also has added his trash-can consciousness to
records by the respected producer Hal Willner, in
"tribute" albums celebrating the work of composer
Kurt Weill, poet Allen Ginsberg, Walt Disney, Charles
Mingus and in collaboration with avant-theatre
director Robert Wilson. In a review of Lou Reed's
poignant Magic And Loss album, David Fricke from
Rolling Stone magazine wrote the following about
Michael Blair.s work:
So, two rototom frames form a tonal hi-hat, a duck
call suggests an alternative cowbell, tack drums from
China become rack toms and putting the hubcap of your
very first car on top of your snare seems like the
right thing to do. Michael Blair crosses over
boundaries of industrial, blues, ethnic, orchestral,
and replacement percussion to form a unique sound.
The Twisted Kit EZX brings you that sound both in the
recordings and the MIDI recorded by Michael.
The Twisted Kit EZX by Michael Blair was sampled
through the very best of outboard with distortion,
reverb, compression and attack effects included in
the internal mixer. This enables you to access a
large number of mixer presets by STS 9, Richard
Devine, DJ Amplive, sub-ID and Count Bass D. And you
can save your own custom mixer presets (with
EZdrummer 1.1).
The Twisted Kit EZX special features.
Sampled through the best of outboard effects with
compression, distortion, attack and reverb made
available in the EZmixer. Mixer presets by STS 9,
Richard Devine, DJ Amp live, SUB-id and Count Bass D.
The possibility to save your own mixer presets with
EZdrummer 1.1 installed.
http://www.toontrack.com/ezx.asp#twisted
Download File Size:706.57 MB
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