VIDEO OF THE DAY ― MAN FOREVER: “SURFACE PATTERNS”

Brooklyn-based experimental drummer and composer John Colpitts, also known as Kid Millions, has played percussion with such groups as Oneida and the Boredoms. Next week he is set to release his second album as Man Forever, Pansophical Cataract (Thrill Jockey, May 15, 2012). Inspired by Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music, the album consists of two long tracks built around propulsive drum rolls that sound as if they are about to introduce something that never quite arrives. But both the thirty-minute “Surface Patterns” and the forty-minute “UR Eternity” are filled with little surprises as they unfold, electric instruments or bass adding bits of drone, mystery, and nuance here and there. It’s like an audio version of Michael Snow’s avant-garde classic Wavelength, in which a camera makes its way slowly across an apartment, oblivious to anything that happens in the room as it approaches the wall ― and then beyond. For the “Surface Patterns” video, Colpitts recruited a group of musicians who have played with Man Forever, including Sarah Richardson, Richard Hoffman, Brad Truax, Shahin Motia, Leah McManigle, and Brian Chase; on May 15, Richardson, Hoffman, Motia, and Chase, along with James McNew, Bryan Devendorf, Ryan Sawyer, Greg Fox, and Oran Canfield, will join Kid Millions for an album release party at (le) poisson rouge, with the Colin Langenus Orchestra and Nymph opening the show. Man Forever then heads out across the country before returning for performances June 29 at Issue Project Room and July 11 at the Stone.