Ian Chang is an unusual drummer. He’s an unbelievably talented percussionist, but he’s not content with traditional instruments. He’s constantly seeking new ways to play and process sounds, rigging up triggers so he can play and manipulate samples as part of his kit. The results are unreal. Recorded and synthesized sounds spill out with polymetric complexity, but with a very human feel. Chang’s talent has earned him glowing accolades from everyone from Pitchfork to NPR, and collaborations artists like Matthew Dear to Com Truise.
Splice Originals: Metal Structures is a portrait of Chang at his finest and most frenetic. He went wild with sticks and mallets in a metal shop, microphones strategically placed. He played rhythms across interesting scrap metal, pipes, machines, and anything else with a good sound. We captured his cadences with a Zoom HR4 hooked up to a Sennheiser K6 with an ME66 shotgun microphone and ME64 cardioid modules. We processed the sounds and chopped them into loops and one-shots, then turned the most melodic lines into a scripted Kontakt instrument, and made more loops and presets from that. We’ve done everything to ensure that Metal Structures is Ian Chang distilled, a sampling of what his sticks are doing at any given moment. And it’s probably our best chance of having Ian’s percussion on all our tracks.
