The Apocalypse Now Sessions
| The Apocalypse Now Sessions | |||||
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| Studio album by Rhythm Devils | |||||
| Released | May 25, 1980 | ||||
| Genre | World music | ||||
| Label | Passport | ||||
| Producer | Mickey Hart | ||||
| Mickey Hart chronology | |||||
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| Bill Kreutzmann chronology | |||||
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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The Apocalypse Now Sessions is an album by the Rhythm Devils. Subtitled The Rhythm Devils Play River Music, and sometimes referred to by that name, it contains music that was recorded for the soundtrack of the film Apocalypse Now. It was released by Passport Records as a vinyl LP in 1980. It was remastered and released on CD in somewhat expanded form by Rykodisc Records in 1990.
The Rhythm Devils is a percussion based music ensemble led by Grateful Dead drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. At the time of the recording of The Apocalypse Now Sessions, the band also included Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, along with percussionists Airto Moreira, Greg Errico, Jim Loveless, and Jordan Amarantha, guitarist Mike Hinton, and vocalist Flora Purim.
After attending a Grateful Dead concert, director Francis Ford Coppola asked Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann to record drum music for his film Apocalypse Now, much of which takes place along a river in the jungle during the Vietnam War. Hart and Kreutzmann, along with seven other musicians, assembled many different drums and other percussion instruments at the Club Front recording studio in San Rafael, California. While a rough cut of the movie was screened, they improvised the music, some of which ended up being used on the final soundtrack. The recording sessions took place over a period of ten days. Selections from the sessions were remixed and assembled into the final album.
In addition to using a large collection of percussion instruments from around the world, provided by the various musicians, the Rhythm Devils constructed some new instruments. One of these was The Beast, an array of bass drums with different tones suspended from a large metal rack. After the recording of The Apocalypse Now Sessions, The Beast was incorporated into the "Drums" section of Grateful Dead concerts, an extended percussion duet performed by Hart and Kreutzmann in the middle of the second set of songs.
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