The latest solo LP from drummer Garrett Burke (Art Contest, Jock Gang, Tug), a.k.a. Isaak Pancake, was an ambitiously warped deconstruction of power electronics and drum and bass music that more often than not left you scratching your head. Just how exactly did Burke manage to extract such surreal, alien sounds from his drums and a few custom midi effects? More curiously, how is he able to pull off his noisy abstract assaults in a live setting? I’m not sure if these were the questions driving Fort Psych to assemble a series of videos around Burke performing tracks from DRUMS OLO, but let’s all just be grateful they did.

Consisting of Jordan Young and Chris Tollack, the duo behind local electronic act, We Roll Like Madmen, Fort Psych is a media design and event production team that focuses on creative collaboration and the construction of transformative spaces. From that description you might expect them to immerse Burke in striking interiors and elaborate backgrounds, but instead they keep their setup relatively simple: a dark sound stage, some strobe lights, and plenty of smoke. Visually it may seem fairly mundane, but the pair are savvy enough to understand that most viewers will be drawn in by the intricacies of the performance, and to obscure that in any form would be a disservice to both the artist and the production.

For this first video in the series (there are two others to follow), Burke performs three successive tracks from his LP—songs which, incidentally, are placed consecutively on the album (tracks 2-4). Watching him maneuver through the puzzling clamor of his futuristic soundscapes can be disorienting, but also breathtaking. If anything it brings a humanizing element to his compositions, an affirmation that for all the metallic whirrs and chaotic fits of robotic tumult, DRUMS OLO was centrally about two of music’s most basic elements: rhythm and groove, as well as the barriers that often limit them.

Isaak Pancake will perform tonight at the Mammal Gallery in support of 10th Letter and Pamela_and her sons. Adiós Ghost and fellow local Shy Layers open the show. Doors are at 8 p.m. Admission TBA. Safe space.

More Info
Bandcamp: isaakpancake.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @isaakpancake
SoundCloud: @isaakpancake