Every Sunday during the summer in nearby Montreal, Mount Royal Park plays host to Tam-Tam-- the great hippie bongo party. In Quebec's normally cosmopolitan, fashion- conscious metropolis, it's an odd sight. Usually by mid- afternoon a group of about 50 would-be Santana percussionists have worked themselves into a hippie lather. Stringy- haired individuals gather 'round, awkwardly prancing around like it's 1969.

Drumhead's disc may have fancy- pants packaging and they may be using a computer, but there's no getting away from the fact that, at heart, it's a hippie-ass bongo circle. Featuring performances from Ben Masserella of Red Red Meat and Doug Scharin of Codeine, Drumhead deconstructs the skronkier bits of excellent bands like the aforementioned Red Red Meat, Califone and Loftus into extended workouts in minimalist rhythm funk. Throw in a few heavily- processed keyboard blips and booty- enhanced basslines, mix it up with some nifty computer editing and you have the sound of bongos just leaving earth's atmosphere.

It sounds better than it really is. While it's an interesting setup, too often Drumhead doesn't make it into orbit, the victim of dull, go- nowhere meanderings that never really take hold. Like the bongo circle, which can be fun for the first few minutes, the outfit pounds out an interesting beat by being too repetitive and too minimalist for its own good. The schtick works on a Loftus record because these bits serve as refreshing snippets between some gorgeous songs; here, what starts out as promising soon ends up... uh... half- baked.

There's a reason why few of those drum- circle hippies ever cut any records. A mixing board cannot get high, and magnetic tape doesn't understand the concept of getting in "the zone." That's not to say that Drumhead doesn't have promise, but here's hoping that the next outing sees them becoming a tad more ambitious.

-Samir Khan