Jim Donovan
The Rhythm Methods
Writer: JUSTIN HOPPER

Pittsburgh City Paper

On Revelation #9, the Rusted Root drummer and drum-circle instructor's new solo album, Donovan relies less on the organic rhythms that power the band and more on the kinds of heavy beats and modern electronic musings that might be seen as that group's antithesis. To Donovan himself, however, this darker catharsis comes from the same inner needs.

"Just like everybody, I've got these different things that move me," says Donovan. "The Root stuff -- positive, lighter energy -- is something that inspired me to do a kind of music, and then there's this other side. It's dark, definitely aggressive -- it's the part where, if you see a Root show, I'll just close my eyes and hit the drums as hard as I can. It's like aggression without fear."
While Revelation #9 is certainly dark and aggressive, it's still a departure that came about as a direct result of Rusted Root. While working on the last Root album, Donovan met Mark Pistol and Jack Dangers of long-time industrial group Meat Beat Manifesto. "When I got turned on to Meat Beat, it was the first time I'd heard [electronic dance music] that I really thought had a musicality behind it," says Donovan. "It was very mindfully created music."

Soon afterwards, Donovan began collecting sounds on tour -- a Mexican baseball radio broadcast, a hotel alarm clock -- as well as creating and recording beats on his computer, largely as a method of learning the stylistic ropes. Eventually, Donovan decided that what he had was the basis for an album, and he took the recent breaks in Rusted Root's tour schedule to finish the disc.
The strength in Revelation #9 comes from its marriage of the stability of what Donovan knows -- acoustic drumming and percussion -- to the musical world he was learning, and the apprentice's excitement that music still held for him.

A track such as "Love 1," featuring fellow Rooter Liz Berlin's vocals, backs up big electronic beats with solid tabla-esque percussion; meanwhile, "Kuku" loops shattered, bass-heavy beats underneath a leading rhythm line borrowed from a traditional African drumming rhythm. So, even if the beats and distorted guitar lines occasionally edge towards the derivativeness of the freshly enthusiastic, the rhythms of years of experience are there to pull the song back. And that gives Donovan a chance to view new territory with the eyes of an old pro.