Hmmm, I'm confused. In early 2004 I saw Marco do a clinic in LA and it blew me away, not just for the undeniable speed and independence, but because his 15-minute solo made a whole lot of musical sense. He worked through a number of modern styles like house and drum n' bass, and utilised his immense technique to play a whole series of awesome grooves that sounded like 3 guys grooving hard together. It made me want to dance, and at the end I leapt off my feet to give a standing ovation, something I do extremely rarely. When I got back to the UK and discovered Drummerworld I checked out the Marco clips here and was disappointed: I couldn't hear any of the magic that I remembered from that evening. And now with these latest clips, I'm disappointed further: no satisfying grooves, nothing that seems to mean anything. Marco's playing like so many of these other chops monsters these days - seemingly hitting drums in whichever way takes his fancy irrespective of whether it sounds good, playing fast doubles between hands and feet on different surfaces for no real purpose...
I look forward with nervous anticipation of this supposedly great and musical performance of Lang with Louis Conte that's coming our way soon. Please, please let it be true. Someone with these immense chops needs to show the others the right direction to take them in.