Ball of Wax 41 Songs: Alex Drum – Bells

Alex Drum swears he hadn’t seen my last blog post about him – wherein I lightly ribbed him on the many musical monikers he’s used over the years – when he decided to release his newest work under his own name, but I feel like I still have to take a little credit. Maybe the mere existence of the “Alex Drum” tag in WordPress-land somehow subtly wormed its way into his brain and influenced his behavior, like some kind of digital toxoplasmosis gondii? Or maybe he just got sick of trying to keep all these projects straight. Anyway, Alex has once again proved that no matter what he calls it, he is more than capable of reliably cranking out highly listenable low-fi masterpieces.  The most recent such masterpiece, “Bells” – perhaps named more for the jingling percussion than for any lyrical element – is built on a repeating acoustic guitar figure and its various interactions with Alex’s simple vocal melody, the aforementioned percussion, and an electric guitar that nabs the lead as soon as he’s done singing, jumping from background figures to a swirling, delayed-out swell before surrendering once more to the acoustic. As always, it’s a pleasure to have Alex here, representing our surprisingly sizable Brooklyn coterie.