The Drumming Space – V/A (2025) – Album Review

Album: [PCMSV028] The Drumming Space

Artist: Various Artists

Release Date:  October 23, 2025

Label: Pinecone Moonshine

Hearing cicadas with a gorgeous weathered piano to start an album is always a good sign. Compilations come in many forms and most of them wobble around like a Jell-O Fruit Salad – everything tossed in at once, chunks suspended in mystery gel, no idea how or why any of it belongs together. You want to include everything, or as much as you can, and you just don’t quite know how to do it. That’s the curse of trying to include everything: you end up with nothing that feels connected. The Drumming Space feels like a jam session more than a narrative piece. There’s breaks, there’s funk and, above all else, there’s soul.

When someone’s skill is undeniable, you know every sound is purposeful. When they drift into strange textures or stripped-down ideas, you can trust it’s intentional – they’re shaping the sound rather than stumbling into it. A lot of compilations drag along a mix of half-formed ideas and artists still figuring out which end of the drum to hit, but everyone on this record knows exactly what they’re doing – a true jam session of great minds. I think the album is pulled together with Dacamera‘s  Improvisation en Bleu, but that’s just my preference – everyone will find something that speaks to them personally. There’s truly something for everyone of this album. A dense, rhythmic biosphere with hints of plunderphonics, IDM, jungle mutations and drum-and-bass. That’s the magic here. This compilation isn’t built around one idea; it’s a living organism with enough pathways for everyone.

I don’t think I’m the person that should be reviewing this album, because there is so much production minutiae that is absolutely above, around and over my head – but what I do know is that I wish this thing were longer. Much longer. It’s a rare miracle to stumble into a compilation where every single artist shows up with this much love, heat and skill.

Would definitely recommend.