The off-the-beaten-path percussion band Rhythmotomy formed in 1993 after its four members met at a drum circle in Thousand Oaks, CA. At the time, drum circles were a popular offshoot of the poet Robert Bly's men's movement. But the new agey Zeitgeist had little effect on Rhythmotomy's burgeoning sound. Steve Sandstedt, Jim Long, Tom Hollow, and Bob Dreisbach meld atmospherics with world music elements to arrive at something intentionally dimensionless and variably trippy, more hardcore than what's allowable by new age precepts. Using everything from artillery casings to shaman drums to Tibetan singing bowls -- anything you can pound, really -- their goal is to "bridge the space between dance and dreams," the members have said. Among the quartet's mentors are Fred Albright and Zitro. In their long duration as a band, they have produced only one CD, 2002's well-received self-released Rhythmotomy. ~ Tammy La Gorce