Review: Science Trips Out on Music in “The Heart Is a Drum Machine”

What is music? It’s a simple question, but it leads director Christopher Pomerenke in many complicated artistic and scientific directions in his documentary The Heart Is a Drum Machine, out Tuesday on DVD.

It’s an expansive, inviting film, which embraces everything from Voyager’s Golden Record and aboriginal funeral chants to brain-music therapy and pop music branding. Along the way, Pomerenke’s mostly unassuming movie is enhanced by interviews with artists, scientists and others deeply invested in charting the pathways of the heart, the prenatal vibration that establishes our musical universe, as well as the mind that modifies those vibrations into meaning.

The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ John Frusciante, actor and indie label mogul Elijah Wood, funk doctor George Clinton and many others pay homage to the transformative nature of music in often eloquent and humorous ways in The Heart Is a Drum Machine. Keenan’s thesis — that music’s primacy lies in the friction between bodies and instruments — is delivered in text, as he sits silently in front of the camera.

The Postal Service and Figurine’s Jimmy Tamborello stares into space, trying to come up with an answer to the simple question posed by Pomerenke. Comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim say immortal pop, jazz and rock tunes written by geniuses like Miles Davis, Carlos Santana and others can be traced back to “The Farmer in the Dell,” “Frere Jacques” and other timeless childhood sing-alongs.  Read Article

By Scott Thill