Deantoni Parks: Technoself

Calling Deantoni Parks a drummer is like calling Michael Jordan an athlete, Andy Warhol a filmmaker, or Oprah Winfrey a person who speaks to other people. Parks is, in fact, a stupendous drummer, his versatility and intricacy having made him a longtime collaborator with the likes of John Cale, The Mars Volta, and Flying Lotus. But beyond his technical skill and aplomb, Parks—an actor, producer, and accomplished score writer—is an imaginative thinker who sees drumming and music production as part of his human experience and a vehicle for expressing his ideas about that experience and the world. Enter Technoself, not only the name of Parks’ mesmerizing 2015 album on Stones Throw and Leaving but also his philosophy for integrating human-made technology and the human body through an understanding that the body may still be our best technology.

If that sounds grandiose at all, it is visceral upon seeing Parks play. With a sampler and computer to his right and a drum kit to his left and beneath his feet, Parks triggers a surprising array of sounds with one hand while dancing around them in kinetic and counterintuitive rhythms on the other. It is an improvisational synthesis he directs in real time, harkening back to the heyday of Squarepusher and Photek but augmented by a gritty sort of soul. In recent years, Parks has played on André 3000’s New Blue Sun and Flea’s Honora. He’s also established the Technoself School of Philosophy, a way to teach the ideas he’s tested through drumming, working, and living.