The Primal Beat by Holland

The drum. There is no culture without it. IT is the earliest instrument, and the most enduring. For me, a percussion enthusiast, I view drumming as more than just sound. It has its own language, its own syntax and grammar. Its own voice.

Taiko drumming is something that came onto the world scene relatively recently. Since then, the success of the Taiko drumming group Kodo and video games such as Namco’s Taiko: Drum Master have made it more popular. SO I knew about Taiko before I ever set foot in CY Stephens.

What I didn’t know is that there is a very physical aspect to the performance. The performers didn’t just drum, they performed acrobatics and physical feats I could never even try to accomplish. I also didn’t know about the various calls they used to mark spots in the music. And I definitely didn’t know how loud it was. The drumming seemed to echo off every surface in the theatre. It was like being inside the drums instead of in front of them.

If I was telling a friend about the performance, I would tell them of the sheer physicality of it. Of how the performers moved seamlessly from one piece to the next, and even from one drum to a neighbouring one. I would tell how, in one piece, the drummers split into two ‘teams’, each trying to outdo the other. And I would tell them how you can hear influences from every culture imaginable.

So overall, I liked the performance a lot. It was something new and exotic, yet it had things I found familiar. If a similar performance comes near here again, I’ll definitely go see it.