Review of: Pete Lockett's Network of Sparks ft. Bill Bruford
Rhythm Sticks Festival, Live at South Bank, London, 1997

Review from: RHYTHM

If you weren't at this second night of the awesome Rhythm Sticks festival, you should have been. Peter Lockett and Bill Bruford's Network of Sparks was an inspired collaboration. It took a few numbers to grow on me, but by the time the interval came, the band were really starting to fire with a piece entitled 'Prism' by Pierre Favre. It started and ended with a furiously fast break played in unison by the band, and featured a wonderfully fluid solo from Bruford on the kit, and a rumba-influenced djembe/conga solo from Nana Tsiboe.

First up after the interval was a wonderful piece of musical theatre entitled 'Travel Light' by Lockett. All five musicians (add Johnny Kalsi and Simon Limbrick) crowded around one marimba, each of them with a pair of beaters. From silence they built up a cascading 12/8 melody, awash with mood and spirit. Lockett and Tsiboe then broke off, playing tabla and talking drum respectively. Lockett is a master percussionist in the true sense of the word - as adept with Octobans as he is with a djembe. And his tabla playing is exquisite, matched equally by his skills on the kanjira.

In 'Crooked Path', Kalsi really started grooving on the dhol. For the finale he was joined by two members of his Dhol Foundation; if you've never heard a real dhol groove, then your rhythmic life is incomplete. Limbrick added a wonderful marimba off-beat, Bruford glided effortlessly around his electronic kit, Lockett rocked his enormous rig, and Tsiboe soloed deliciously on djembe. Proof positive that drummers simply love making a noise.

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