One listen, and it was a bit of a struggle. I think I was too focused on saying what the instruments were doing, whereas here it would’ve been better to have let the song’s name influence the writing. In retrospect, the song does have a bit of a drift to it and I missed it entirely.

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

I hope you enjoy.

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Wafting beeping in a silence. Warbly sounds and percussion plays tense, plays playfully. Humming bass, and all sorts of angles. Everything feels like it’s forming, working together to start congealing. And it does start coming together. More detail and shape form. More come together.

The beat reveals itself. Steady, feeling slow, but at the right pace. The bass wanders and seems to stretch and smear, almost. The beeping continues and takes on new shape as the bass changes. The percussion keeps things together; the percussion keeps the form and structure.

It’s almost as though everything is sliding in and out of each other, but this is careful and considered. It’s about the sound and space, and minimalism. And calm, and groove, and texture. And eventually keys finds themselves adding, but only for a moment.

Saxophone comes in, playing moments to come forward, and it plays in pieces. It provides context and more framing, and the keys eventually return, working with it, though with more space… at first. Eventually they play a bit more, and it’s almost as though brief flashes of movement are being witnessed.

And something a little melancholic comes in, then percussion diminishes. It shrinks a little, and bass returns, and there’s something going on here that seems conclusive. Something that seems like a big climax, but instead goes for small. Quiet. No need to greatly announce as a hum comes in and takes over before fading away at the song’s end.