Music isn’t always about song writing; it’s often about the art behind the music and pushing boundaries which is no doubt part of a deeper concept behind Fox Millions Duo, the pairing of drummers Greg Fox and Kid Millions.
Greg Fox is best known for his time in black metal band Liturgy whilst John Colpritts (aka Kid Millions) has been playing in a number of projects including Oneida, whereas the experimental “Lost Time” brings the two drummers together as Fox Millions Duo for an avant-garde release on the Thrill Jockey label.
The album is split into two tracks, the first being the more chaotic “Telegy/Time Lapse” inspired by Fox’s mentor Milford Graves, the second “Post Encounter Effect” designed to provide an element of calm and contrast.
In the first piece the two drummers collide, sometimes playing off each other in a frantic jam and other times coming together in unison. With a brief pause after three and a half minutes it’s at this point that “Telegy/Time Lapse” could easily have come to an end, however it starts to morph into the non-drum programming of Greg Fox before a more cohesive drum solo but even then it’s not even half way through and you soon discover a 20 minute track is far too much to cope with in one go.
Having been recorded over two six hour sessions there’s something impressive about how two drummers can keep up the relentless hitting of the skins, from a jazz perspective I’m sure there’s more to it and you need a trained ear to pick out the highlights but otherwise despite being hard work on the ears, there’s a definite feat of endurance going on if nothing else.
It’s no surprise then (or maybe pure relief) that part two “Post Encounter Effect” is slower and more repetitive with almost a tune in there, it also benefits from background noise with a little feedback and drone guitar but again just when you think it should fade off into the distance… it keeps going.
I appreciate the skills behind the first half and the soundscape of the second, I enjoy the crossover between music and the possibility of this being an installation or performance art, but on record what became two musical scores of twenty minutes each could easily have been cut into something a lot more concise and Fox Millions Duo would still have made there point heard.
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