Mode by Julian Broadhurst

DCM 008 - Mode – Metal Percussion music. MPm 1 – my 8th album. The first of three volumes of my 'Metalshop Studies' – my foundational studies in the genre or Tranche - MPm. A bewildering range of objects, acoustics and techniques. Intense focus and fury – in the Metalshop – my research area - at the service of discovering music. Beginning here at recording Rh 5 - a very early recording and the first one to use metal – hence the new genre. Rh 1 - 4 are on Album 27 ‘Environmental music’- with others that got misplaced – summing up then this first Group of Albums.

Bowl - Rh 5. Careful measured study on a large metal bowl – with a metronome to prove the beat.

Box – Rh 7. A ‘Fretwork’ of beats on a wooden box.

Cabinet – Rh 10. Fast paced study on a metal cabinet.

Case – Rh 11. Some kind of case or box brought into the studio to test for musicality.

Splash – Rh 12. Metal object, Resonance and Electronics to give the ‘splash’ to the impacts.

Tythe 1 – Rh 18. Super fast wood percussion.

Tythe 2 – Rh 19. Same object as Tythe 1 – a study in miking and damping.

Kline – Rh 20. Large metal vessel.

Impromptu Glass – Rh 22. A moment of percussion snatched on a glass toped display Cabinet – once on a visit somewhere. I was finding music everywhere. A friend held the microphone.

Backhand – Rh 23. Hitting something old and tired very hard. The Composer as Blacksmith on his Metalshop floor – huge leather apron and boots – “banging out Rhythm” [Siouxsie] – white hot for music.

Chyme – Rh 24. Processed resonance layering.

Kup – Rh 25. Tapping a rocking bowl – a fountain of sound hangs in the air.

Out Beat – Rh 26. A really physical performance – drawing a counterpoint out of something very large.

Frome – Rh 27. Music at an extreme of perception. Two Counter Metronomes layered over a harsh, punishing sheet metal percussion.

Ligeture – Rh 28. It had to be done – countering Metronomes al la Ligeti.

Floor Time – Rh 29. Ferocious percussion – control and moment.

Vessel – Rh 30. Percussion and resonance overwhelm.

Double in mind – Rh 31. Two takes offset – early phase music Phm – the next genre to split off with it’s own set of recordings.

Slip in time – Rh 32. Punning on a ‘Stich in Time’ – for live Metronome and Cabinet. Let me make you think the Metronome is slowing down ! Sufficiently accurate off beat percussion can make you think that - an old party trick of mine. Album 108 - Metronomics Dm 19 - focuses on this effect.

Mode – Rh 33. The track that named the album. A polyphonic dialogue of Patterns - of stop and flow - on a beautiful housing I’ve used dozens of times in recording. A very favourite and versatile instrument I learnt to play on as a child. Sadly it had to be dismantled when what it housed came to its end. I kept its parts.


An early reorganization of my music research interest defined my music into dedicated sets of Albums. This way things of a kin got heard together - as one type of album or another - by Genre - or Tranche as I styled them. In this Case In this Case Metal Percussion music, Percussion on anything other than drums, - percussion in General as opposed to Drums as a Specialism, by convention - MPm. In truth these are some of the earlyest recordings I made after Marehay and these might well have been my Third album were it not for this Genre Ordering.

Albums 8 - 10 are the first three MP albums, placed in a block, one of 5 blocks, placed like books on a shelf. in an in an overarching 'Group' of my first 27albums. Five Blocks for the Five Tranches - as they were founded (more of less) - five sets of studies and pieces, as my Foundational Group 'Blue Cherry' [after a friend]. The foundation stone the rest of my music is built on - in four further Groups.

The three MPm albums in the Blue Cherry Group are three Volumes of studies – my ‘Metal-Shop studies’ - MPm 1 Mode, MPm 2 Jentoo and MPm 3 Lampjack. The Metal-Shop was a workspace in my then ‘Drum studio,’ dedicated to the safe percussion of metal et al.

Beginning as a percussionist my first 7 albums are for Drums of various kinds, Drum music or Dm, my first area of research interest or Tranche. I soon realised there was a second area of percussion, as a generality over a specialism - percussion on anything other than Drums, by convention - MPm

The album numbers are volumes in a [for the most part] chronological edition.- The DCM Broadhurst Edition - Prepared for the British Library in 2019. The Volumes or Albums themselves were actually released as and when it was possible. The Edition though, was planed to stand on the 'foundation Stone' of the Blue Cherry group.

The Rh catalogue, numbers my works in order of Completion.