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Adam Betts announces debut album Colossal Squid & shares ‘Drumbones’ video

15 August, 2016 — by Christopher Ratcliff0

Adam Betts just made our ears and eyes bleed and now we love him more than any other drummer right now.

adam betts

Who’s your favourite drummer? Yeah I would’ve said Janet Weiss from Sleater-Kinney too, well done – we get along quite well don’t we! But right now, I may have just discovered a new favourite…

Please say hello to Adam Betts, whose debut album Colossal Squid is due 25 November on Blood and Biscuits, and once you’ve essentially said hello to a laptop screen (you weirdo) watch the following FRIGGING AWESOME VIDEO for ‘Drumbones’ the first track to be taken from the album…

Good huh!

You may already know Adam Betts as one-third of experimental London trio Three Trapped Tigers, or you may have seen him drumming for everyone’s favourite messy-haired noise-terrorist Squarepusher on his Shobaleader One tour.

However Betts’ debut album sounds as if he’s embarking on an even more idiosyncratic, avant-garde tip, combining his badassery with live drums with the more machine-based percussive approaches of Autechre or Oneohtrix Point Never. Although if the debut track above is anything to go by, Betts sounds like he’s also created something pretty damn approachable and catchy too.

And if that wasn’t impressive enough, the album was recorded live in one single day. Having previously recorded the album in various studios across London, Betts decided the live version was the superior beast. He explains:

“It clicked that this was the way to represent the material in the best way possible – performed entirely live, as it happened. Any “mistakes”, any looseness, felt like a step away from the feeling of material being written with the click of a mouse at a computer. It’s really a punk album with tape delays instead of guitar chords.”

In order to record the album live, Betts essentially made a series of instruments on Ableton – a combination of effects, synths, and samples – all of which could be triggered from his drum kit or SPD-SX, therefore enabling him to play everything live and giving him the freedom to take the music in any direction he pleased.

Yes I had to look all that up! What am I? The editor of Rhythm Magazine?

(Yes I also had to look up the name of a drum magazine.)

Anyway, Adam Betts = fucking rad. Buy his album when it comes out on 25th November. And if all of the above hasn’t persuaded you, just take a look at the phenomenal cover by the super-talented Russell Taysom

colossal squid

CD/LP/T-Shirt Bundles are available from Blood and Biscuits and you can download the album from his Bandcamp page.

And you can also listen to Adam Betts’ favourite podcasts here.

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