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Baker's Dozen

Speaking Rhythms: Valentina Magaletti’s Baker’s Dozen
Jennifer Lucy Allan , March 31st, 2021 09:57

Prolific drummer and collaborator Valentina Magaletti marks the release of Tomaga's finest album by telling Jennifer Lucy Allan about her favourite 13 albums, from The Cure to Miles Davis, Art Blakey, and Can to Deerhoof, This Heat and the Art Ensemble Of Chicago. Photo by Adele di Nunzio

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Can – Ege Bamyasi
Tell me about that Monster Movie show.

It was amazing, as you probably guessed, although I put Ege Bamyasi on the list, not Monster Movie which we played. It was a big deal. Obviously Jaki [Liebezeit] – for anyone with even a little bit of musical taste – is a legend. it's incredible what he did, all his studies in folk music; never plays in 4/4; his use of the 10” snare, which has a very specific frequency. You wouldn’t call it rock, it's just another level, he's a class on his own. Whatever happened with this inflation of the ‘kraut’ bit is just a synonym of good drumming, or motorik good drumming – it doesn’t matter if it's from Germany or not. I have this duo with another percussionist and we're always studying his patterns to try to emulate his sound. We used to have the Can-off, me and Malcolm Catto, where we’d see who can play that ‘Vitamin C’ groove best. 

So then with Monster Movie, it was, ‘ok it's gonna be you, Thurston Moore, Debbie Googe, Steve Shelley, Malcolm Mooney, and Pat Thomas on piano’ – no big deal, you know?! I said, ‘woah, ok!’ At the same time, not to sound like a pretentious prick, but Monster Movie was very easy for me.