Trend Watch: Here Comes The "Gringo Dembow"
Plus, Bandcamp Friday????
Happy Friday, everyone! Today I’d like to think out loud about a drumming trend that’s been several decades in the making. If my calculations are correct, we are swiftly approaching a saturation point for what I call “gringo dembow”. What I mean by this is that the dembow rhythm has escaped its containment and is quickly becoming an all purpose, genre-agnostic groove with the same kind of ubiquity as the “four-on-the-floor” or the shuffle.
You may not know the dembow by name, but if you’ve lived in an urban environment in the last two decades I’m certain you’d know it by sound. Bass drum on beats 1 and 3, snare on the + of 2 and beat 4. “DUH-kaDUH-KAH”. This rhythm is the heartbeat of a number of different genres originating from the West Indies, including Jamaican dancehall, Puetro Rican reggaeton, and (duh) Dominican dembow. To my understanding, the beat drives both its name and typical arrangement from the 1990 song “Dem Bow” by Shabba Ranks. I first heard the beat via Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina”, a 2006 smash hit that was particularly unavoidable in New York City. A decade later the even smashier hit “Despacito” ensured that the dembow rhythm was unavoidable most everywhere on Planet Earth. Thanks to superstars like Bad Bunny, if you step outside your house onto a city street without headphones on while the sun is shining you are almost guaranteed to hear those asymmetrical snare drums pounding out from cars, storefronts, and bluetooth speakers the world over.
I suspect that the dembow rhythm’s popularity stems in part from math. Take away the specifics of its production, the particular drum sounds and their arrangement, and the dembow is a count of “3-3-2”. In other words, it is a variation on the tresillo, which long time readers may recall also serves as the basis for drum parts like the “Be My Baby” beat among many, many others. In fact, plenty of regions outside of the West Indies and Latin America have rhythms based on the same math. As reggaeton went global other regional variants of the 3-3-2 rose to compete for the dance floor. Astute listeners may have noticed that afrobeats (not to be confused with afro beat) often uses drum beats based on the same count, with some minor differences in the placement of the snare drum.
It doesn’t take a map maker to intuit the connective tissue between Latin American rhythms and their African counterparts. Given Spain’s proximity and connection to Arabic culture, you might not be surprised to learn that North African and Middle Eastern music also uses a variation of the 3-3-2 dem bow rhythm. In fact, by the time I first heard “Gasolina” I was already familiar with a much faster and more aggressive version of the same drum beat, courtesy of the Armenian/Lebanese-American nü-metal band System of a Down. Listen to the verse of “Know” from 1999 and you’ll hear drummer John Dolmayan rip through a hyper-speed version of the dembow.
It’s this hard rocking version of the dembow that brings us to the current state of affairs. I have a gut feeling that a lot of rock drummers are going to start messing around with the dembow. The first sign of this oncoming adoption arrived last year via Knocked Loose. At the climax of last year’s single “Suffocate” the band drop into a sludgy, brutally downtuned version of the dembow. Even the Knocked Loose doubters in my social circle admitted that this “reggaeton breakdown” went DUMBY HARD. Knocked Loose went on to showcase this innovation in mosh pit technology to a live TV audience on the Jimmy Kimmel show with help from Poppy. While the performance may have sent some concerned parents into a tizzy, it likely also sent hardcore drummers straight to their practice space to cook up dembow breakdowns of their own.
Hardcore isn’t the only guitar-genre getting into the groove. On this very Bandcamp Friday the experimental metal act Pyramids released Pythagoras, their first album in a decade and a veritable ode to the dembow. As evidenced by the album’s press release, the band consciously tried to mix reggaeton and neoperreo with their established blend of black metal and shoegaze (a once novel combination that now feels as groundbreaking as floral patterns in spring). The results are genuinely bewildering. I can’t say that I’ve ever heard anything like Pythagoras. At its best it reminds me a little of Nicolas Jaar’s ghostly take on the dembow. Other times it made me think of that time that Liturgy tried doing trap beats.
I have other examples closer to home. This Wednesday ~*My Girlfriend*~ and I went to The Hideout to see our neighbor Joe Seger play drums in the psych rock band Glyders. Roughly halfway into their set Joe laid down a dembow played entirely on the toms. It rocked. Moreover, unlike Pyramids it didn’t seem like Glyders were trying to push the envelope. They were just a groovy rock and roll band playing a groovy rock and roll song. It felt like a natural choice.
Heck, I can get even closer to home than that. The night before we saw Glyders I played my own variation on the dembow with Dan Rico on the song “Maybe I’m Scared” over at The Empty Bottle. When we worked on music together back in Brooklyn Dan encouraged me to throw in the dembow as often as possible. He viewed the groove as an antidote to the monotony of indie rock drumming and as a way to connect with his Hispanic heritage. As a drummer eager to take on new challenges and an on-the-record penchant for Latin rhythms, I was happy to oblige. It won’t be the last time you’ll hear me play the dembow either, but that’s a story for another newsletter…
I’m hesitant to draw conclusions about what the surging popularity of the dembow with rockers means. It seems inevitable to me that after decades of exposure to reggaeton, North American drummers would pick up the rhythm and try it out in a different context. Whether they’ve learned it by osmosis or through sincere appreciation of the source material can only be determined on a case by case basis. There will be tasteful cases and distasteful ones, which will have as much to do with the music played over the groove as it will the drummer playing it. We rock drummers have a lot of catching up to do, after all. While some critics might call this a sign of cultural appropriation, the groove’s global popularity makes it harder to pin down. Did Knocked Loose hear the groove first in a Daddy Yankee song or from System of a Down? This questions are only going to get more confusing going forward. At the end of the day a beat like this can’t be tied down to a single genre or location. It goes on and on and on. Keep your ears peeled for it, and get ready to hit the dance floor.
# # # # # The Promo Zone # # # # #
What’s that I hear? Could it be the sound of a BANDCAMP FRIDAY????? Indeed, on this and only this day of the month, Bandcamp takes no cut from any sales on their platform. That means that if you’ve been meaning to purchase a Lamniformes cassette or t-shirt, or even a digital album, pulling the trigger today would shoot me more cash than any other day in May. And I could sure use the cash! So mosey on over to the Lamniformes Bandcamp page and grab yourself a copy of The Lonely Atom, Sisyphean, and/or a comfortable and stylish Lamniformes t-shirt!
ICYMI: Last week the post-punk band Laughing Stock released two new songs, “Grift” & “Cubehead”, featuring drumming by your’s truly! Early praise for the pair has compared them to Gang of Four, Wire, and “Joy Division if they were good”. Wow, strong words! You can pick up both tunes on the Laughing Stock Bandcamp page.
Finally, since there are a bunch of new readers here (hello!) I feel compelled to say that this newsletter is made possible by my paying subscribers. I’m eternally grateful for their support and do by best to return the favor of their genorosity in the form of exclusive bonuses like annotated playlists, early access to my music, and other illusive surprises. You too can help me make rent and buy groceries for the cost of a coffee. Subscribe now for $5 a month or the low, low price of $40 a year. Come on in, the water’s warm!
🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Listening Diary ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Listen to this year’s running diary on Apple Music.
“Nausicaä (Love Will be Revealed)” by Cameron Winter (Heavy Metal, 2024)
By the time this record was building steam last year I was already too deep into my EOY list building to make room for newcomers. Glad I got around to it, though. This song slaps! Love the drum performance, and what a great chorus! I don’t find Winter’s voice as strange as some do. I don’t know dude, some guys just have deep voices. Let us live.
“The Seer” by Nubya Garcia (Odyssey, 2024)
Speaking of great drumming, jeez! I’m not sure if this tune even has a head or if the band are just riffing their way into the heavens. Killer stuff, either way. This is really well mixed too. The group sound like they’re playing together live, but there are just enough effects to give it the “cinematic” sheen that the album is pitched at.
“A Tear In Time” by Chaos Magick (Through the Looking Glass, 2025)
Even more great drumming and even more jazz. Shouts out to Burning Ambulance for putting this one on my radar. One of the less abrasive projects I’ve heard under John Zorn’s expansive umbrella. Maybe it’s just the organ, but the harmonic choices sound to me like a throwback, more blues indebted than the current jazz vocab. The rhythm on the other hand, whew boy. Does this level of metric modulation qualify as dark magic(k)? Put a pin in that one.
“4 Against The Odds” by Ukandanz (Evil Plan, 2025)
I wish the last three tracks on this EP were a single long song, because that’s what they are no matter what the mastering engineer tells you. Consider this a teaser. Proof that you “can djent” with an electric piano if you distort it right.
“No One Else” by Tabula Rasa (Crimson, 2016)
Once I’d learned that my suspicion that the pop duo Magdalena Bay had a background in prog rock was correct I needed to confirm my secondary suspicion that they were probably pretty dang good at prog rock too. Scoreboard shows two correct guesses in a row for Team Progmatism. Tabula Rasa don’t sound much like Magdalena Bay (just listen to how different the vocals are!), but the attention to detail and general fussiness (complimentary) are dead give-aways of the same authorial hand. When that synth arpeggio kicks in you know shit’s about to go down.
\ \ \ \ \ Micro Reviews / / / / /
Here are five micro reviews of albums from my vast Rate Your Music catalog. Long time Lamniformes Instagram followers will recognize these from my stories, however they’ve been re-edited and spruced up with links so that you can actually hear the music instead of just taking my word for it.
U.F.O.F. by Big Thief (2019) - Rock
This where I got on board with Big Thief, in no small part because it features some of the coolest drumming on a modern-ish rock record that I’ve heard. Apparently they wrote and recording some of these tunes on the spot in the studio, which is impressive and explains the perfect balance between music school finesse and rural east coast hippie looseness on the album. Big Thief’s high level musicianship helps keep things sparse enough to fill out the songs with all kinds of delicate textural color. The few spare harmonies, guitar overdubs, and extra taps of percussion feel monumental when they show up. The songwriting is top notch too. The title track into “Cattails” is flat out unfair, but my personal favorite is “Jenni” which might be Big Thief’s “Climbing Up The Walls”. Oh god, am I aging into a guy that calibrates all of his comparisons to Ok Computer? Take me out behind the shed, sheesh.
i,i by Bon Iver (2019) - Pop
Justin Vernon returns from the digital wilderness to the world of real songs. This has always struck me as a very American sounding record in both a heartland rock sense and an Aaron Copeland sense. There’s something inherently moving to hear that idiom produced this way, as if the song’s had burst open sending shard in every direction. It’s the kind of album that asks you to consider the transcendent beauty of a midwestern sun setting over a field of gas stations and fast food signs. This open-hearted approach only works because of Vernon’s ear for melody and his sturdy-as-ever falsetto. The stretch of “Holyfields,” through “Naeem” is some of the best material in the Bon Iver discography.
SAWAYAMA by Rina Sawayama (2020) - Pop
A distillation of the exact sensation of watching one hour of TRL in 2002, filtered through high poptimist production into a globe-trotting rock opera about millennial self-discovery and self-definition. One of the first major warning signs that y2k was back in a big way at the start of the 20s. At the same time it feels very of its moment, not only referencing Carly Rae Jepsen by name, but following in the same continuum of artists making music that is stylistically pop but closer to Big Indie in scale. In other words, this is Pop For People Who Think About Pop. Look, you don’t interpolate the Final Fantasy victory theme into your closing track if you aren’t operating at some level of nerd affinity. The pastiche always has a point, though. Each allusion is precisely calibrated for each step in the album’s emotional arc. It wouldn’t work if the songs weren’t great across the board, but luckily they are.
A Different Shade of Blue by Knocked Loose (2019) - Metalcore
Everyone my age and older that’s into metalcore seems to have a bone to pick with these guys. Not me! It doesn’t bother me in the slightest that they sorta sound like Cave In. The kids didn’t get a chance to see Cave In live at their heaviest, let ‘em get their own equivalent. The high pitched vocals might not be everyone’s bag, but I like that you can hear what the guy is saying.
Knocked Loose have impeccable timing for physical violence. I’d love to get a look at the click automation on some of these songs, because each tempo change feels dialed in to the nanosecond for maximum impact. The “Denied By Fate” breakdown gets me doing the Antonio Banderas meme every time. Bands like this typically work with a limited palette, but they get a lot of use out of the blues they have on hand. There’s just enough variety in the songwriting to keep things fresh for 40 minutes. I especially like the way the slower, moody “Guided By The Moon” sets up the record’s second half. Only time will tell if this is a classic, but this band earned their hype for a reason.
None But a Pure Heart Can Sing by So Hideous (2021) - Post-Metal
An album I admire and professionally envy in equal amounts. What I mean is that this is so deeply “my shit” that I’m annoyed I didn’t think to write it first. Screamo/post-metal arranged for chamber orchestra and rock band. A lot of times when heavy bands add orchestral elements they feel tacked on top of already finished tunes and therefore feel extraneous. Not so with this record. Every instrument is essentialized. If you took out the piano, strings, trumpets, and horns the songs wouldn’t just feel empty, they straight up wouldn’t exist. So Hideous also avoid the common pitfall of turning post-metal/post-rock into soporific reverb soup by keeping things brisk. The drums MOVE and the songs zip by. “The Emerald Pearl” is an all-timer, and the album’s finale is the perfect pay off. A triumph, and already one of this decade’s most criminally overlooked heavy albums. You’ve got five years to change that!