POP MUSIC REVIEW : Earthworks Mixes Up Best of Both Worlds

Like Max Roach before him, drummer Bill Bruford emphasizes the tonal aspects of percussion, making a melodic as well as rhythmic contribution to his group’s sound. But while Roach was limited to the acoustic tones from his traditional drum kit, Bruford, using electronic drums, contributes a vast array of sounds ranging from tinkling bells to full-blown chordal harmonies, elevating him to a position in the rhythm section much like that held by the keyboardist.

But there’s more to the former Yes and King Crimson stickman’s latest quartet, the British-based Earthworks, than catchy electronic percussion. Saturday at the Coach House, the group displayed a quirky hybrid of jazz and rock with twisted, sometimes searing themes, rhythms that waffled more than an incumbent seeking office and unusual orchestration in which Bruford’s electronics played a major part.

Yet, the drummer hasn’t completely abandoned acoustic instruments. A quartet of cymbals as well as hi-hat and snare drum stood among his kit and these were the instruments Bruford favored for timekeeping, adding punctuation with variously pitched electronic tom-tom pops and booms from the synthesized bass drum, while the other members of the quartet moved in and out of the solo spotlight.

The band opened with a pair of tunes from their latest album, “Dig?,” that went through more changes than a plastic surgeon’s wife. After a furious theme, with saxophonist Ian Ballamy squirting polished tones from his soprano, Bruford slipped into a relaxed, in-the-saddle groove that pulled keyboardist Django Bates out from behind his setup to fume and bluster on his E-flat tenor horn, a kind of midget tuba with a sound similar to a trombone’s. Back on keyboards for “Stones Throw,” Bates added slide-whistle effects and static, while Ballamy, this time on tenor sax, played it cool with a hint of Stan Getz’s breathy style.

“My Heart Declares a Holiday,” from the group’s 1987 album, featured Bruford’s driving African-flavored beat and bassist Tim Harries plucky acoustic foundation backing a tight, stop-and-start-theme. Ballamy used his improvisational space to build a series of ascending lines that roared out of the low end before settling into a burst of honks and shouts. Bruford’s tom-tom heavy solo suggested the kind of punch Billy Cobham supplied the late Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Petula Clark’s 1965 hit “Downtown” was given an off-beat, minor-key treatment that held some of the sinister feeling that being downtown carries these days. Bruford added back-alley atmospherics by working the beat in tones that suggested the pounding of garbage-can lids. A more delicate sound came from the drummer on “Pilgrim’s Way,” where he blended the sound of hammered strings with Harries’ rich acoustic bass tones. “Up North,” a tune inspired by the coal fields of the U.K., ironically recalled the township rhythms of South Africa.

To their credit, Bruford and company avoided lengthy riffing and the kind of simple pop hooks that American electric instrumental bands seem to favor. The Earthworks blend of acoustic and electronic sounds, and traditional, ethnic and experimental rhythms, could show fusioneers in the U.S. a new direction.