The best part about getting further and further away from the 80's is that we can finally listen back and really sort out the gems from the turds. You have to appreciate the 80's for what it was; a time where technology in the industry was moving much faster than the participants and where excess and grandiosity were the way of the world. Never have bands been so removed from their audiences as the entire Decade of 1980. Any organic part of a song was basically rung out with digital effects until it had almost no character at all. They were selling millions of albums and making billions of dollars off of artists for the first time, and the bigwigs sort of went a little nuts. It started with Frampton and it sort of ended with Nirvana, but for a good 12 years or so the music industry behaved like the son of a Saudi Prince attending university in another continent, shoving money around just for the sheer pleasure of it.
My point is, a lot of the influence and importance the 80's actually had wasn't really apparent until now, twenty years later. Once people finally got a handle on how to manipulate the technology into progressing the art, things improved drastically. Engineers had the time to work the kinks out of the recording software, and musicians had time to figure out which effects are good (FUZZ) and which effects are dumb (PHASER). With regard to recording technique and style, if we never had Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms, we might not have had Kid A. Think about that, hmm? Brothers In Arms is impressive even in it's dryly recorded, synth-infused world. Great songs will work no matter what you do to them, and this record is a great example of that.
Recently it was disclosed that after longtime drummer Terry Williams couldn't hack it, jazz session master Omar Hakim was brought in and recorded every song in two days. The only piece of Williams' recordings left on the album are the echo-y, crescendo drums at the start of Money For Nothing, which I have to admit, are pretty fucking cool.
Hakim's drumming is a lot more practical, albeit necessary for the type of album Brothers In Arms is, and its definitely part of the reason this album was so popular that it put the entire CD manufacturing business on hold when it was released. The straight, minimalist style of drumming on So Far Away and Money For Nothing still feels like rock drumming but it's never bombastic, it's always even and concise.
The second half of the record is more folk/world music influenced, but instead of being too jazzy Hakim plays more the way Nick Mason would; sparse, but straight and dynamic. Well thought out hits and patterns let Mark Knopfler's talent as a songwriter shine through. With a laid back approach on the bass by John Illsley, you get a tinge of cool guitar stuff too.
It's kind of nice to hear a different rhythmic approach to Dire Straits' songs. Terry Williams had his own merits, but it shows a lot of character to step aside and let another man have at it for an album. Williams returned for the subsequent tour and catered his playing on these songs according to Omar's style.
I'm not sure I could be that passive, but I'm glad he was.
NOTE: These videos are of Terry Williams playing Omar Hakim's patterns.
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