Leap (Drop Trio album)

For other uses, see LEAP.

Untitled

Leap is the second album released by Drop Trio. The album debuted in 2004 and was self-released by the band. The album is noted as having been recorded entirely improvised in the studio.

History / Premise

During a long drive in their van in late 2003, while on a short tour of cities in Texas, the members of Drop Trio (then Ian Varley, Nuje Blattel and Nino Batista) discussed ideas for a date to record their next record, the follow-up to their debut, 2003's Big Dipper. Deliberations eventually, and unintentionally, realized the idea of recording an entirely improvised record in the studio. They subsequently booked time in the renowned SugarHill Recording Studios for the date February 29, 2004 (which was in fact Leap Day, a part of the inspiration for the album's name). John Griffin of SugarHill, who had previously engineered the band's debut album, was called on once again for this ambitious session.

Recording session

On February 29, 2004, at 10 AM, Ian Varley, Nuje Blattel, and Nino Batista rolled into SugarHill with dozens of instruments in tow. It took over four hours to set up the studio with all the instruments, electronics, and microphones that would be needed to produce the eventual two and a half hours of straight musical improvisation.

Some notable instrumental elements in the studio that day were a wooden recorder, kazoo, countless and highly varied percussion elements such as congas, bongos, rototoms, shakers, cymbals, a grand piano, a vintage Hammond B3 with vintage Leslie speaker to match, Rhodes piano, 4 string electric bass, 6 string electric guitar (custom tuned a perfect fourth lower than normal tuning), drum kit, a broken acoustic guitar that has over 75 handwritten signatures (from friends, ex-bandmates, and various other random people), guitar effects pedals, and pretty much "anything else that made noise in the studio that day...". It is of note that the album cover features a photograph of dozens of keys hanging from strings, which together are an informal and unique set of musical chimes used at SugarHill as part of their in-house instrument collection. The sound of these keys is heard at the very beginning and very ending of Leap.

The band members found themselves walking around the studio towards the end of the marathon session, using each other's instruments at will and exploring with sounds ranging from hand claps to random shouting to "throwing drumsticks at cymbals leaning against the wall across the room...", all the while recording every sound they made.

The music produced in that session ranged from palatably melodic and ambient to highly atonal and experimental.

Reception

The 2.5 hour recording session was in fact edited for time, but still the final recording that was released is truly the 100% improvised compositions that were performed, with no modifications or overdubs added later. Leap reviews are varied and generally divided into "Loved it" or "Hated it" categories. Critics typically found the album bold, daring, and ambitious, but opinions became strongly divided beyond that. Fans of live instrumental music, as well as musicians themselves, tended to find the album favorable, whereas others (including some Drop Trio fans) felt it too drastic a change from the sound they enjoyed on Big Dipper.

The online music vendor, Magnatune.com, even went as far as not carrying Leap in their online store citing that it didn't fit the style of their catalog, even though they carried the band's debut album, Big Dipper. Further, Drop Trio's third record from 2005, the piano dominated, melodic Cézanne, is in fact carried by Magnatune.

Drop Trio went on to "re-learn" some of the improvised pieces they had spontaneously created in the recording session so they could perform them a live shows. Since then, several tracks from Leap have become very popular live show staples, including "Mothership", "Robot Suit" and "The Big S.O." (In an ironic twist, as stated before, Magnatune sells Cézanne, although renditions of "Mothership" and "Robot Suit" appear on that record.)

Track listing

NOTE: While the 2.5 hour recording session was, in effect, one long improvisation, specific durations of the session were edited out of the seamless recording and loosely divided into "songs". They were then ordered as follows, which were mostly kept in chronological order (in regards to when they appear on the master recording) to preserve the feel of the improvisation as it progressed.

All tracks are credited to Varley/Blattel/Batista.

1. "Leap"
2. "The Big S.O."
3. "Mothership"
4. "Because Rifles Are Huge"
5. "Anapodyopsis"
6. "Washington's Armies"
7. "Tethered"
8. "Ooog Baby"
9. "The Elements of Argument"
10. "Two Words: Sound"
11. "Robot Suit I"
12. "Robot Suit II"
13. "Robot Suit III"
14. "Leapt"

External links

• Official website