One listen.

A lot of this came easy, but I feel like I was writing against the song in parts. It’s difficult for me to quantify, but I feel like that’s how I wrote.

Jon Batiste, Chad Smith & Bill Laswell’s “Drop Away” is from The Process.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Percussion rolls, flows, seems to pause and move. Bass is there, calmly moving along, being busy and being low. And some vocals come in, repeat a phrase, “Drop Away”, and something like an organ is there, too. It probably is an organ, but it seems like an organ.

The vocals say other things, too. They sing words and phrases in short, clear phrases, looking for imagery and finding it, and seeing where it all sits.

Those keys are no longer sounding like an organ and they play these strikes and flickers, and suddenly it feels like a massive amount of noise. Some of it dissolves in bubbles and the moment is quiet, and then it picks up again. All that calm energy.

The vocals seem more spaced here, and they keep going, and then they pick up again, too. Everything flows and is wide and pushing against the sides, and all remains calm and driven. It’s dancing music, and suggestive and symbolic, and so much seems like imagery.

Intensity increases and those keys play harder. They play between strikes and stabs, rumbling quickly and slowly, and without a business, and then everything goes back to rolling.

“Drop away” the vocals repeat, and they seem to have some sort of stress in them. But maybe it’s not there. Maybe they’re just really about sound and imagery, and nothing else, because they are distinct, but they meld into the sounds around them. Everything melds together, and everything moves forward, loops and progresses, and comes to another moment of keys playing between strikes and stabs, but playing through them too. Then everything settles and fades away as the song ends.