Monday, December 29, 2025

Steve Lyman - SIGNAL TO BURNING



I've been seeing posts of an upcoming project featuring Cedric Bixler-Zavala (At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta, etc.) and drummer/synth player Steve Lyman (Utah to Brooklyn, NY), whom I was unfamiliar with prior to this upcoming collab, 'SIGNAL TO BURNING', on April 1st, 2026.  

Lyman is primarily a jazz drummer/composer/educator mashing up electronics and occasional brass (woodwind if you want to get technical, which his music is), referring to his latest solo record 'SPIRAL' in 2024.  This conglomeration probably explains how he paired up with Cedric in the first place, mirroring his/The Mars Volta's often unconventional ingredients in a musical blender, while maintaining a strong jazz...exoskeletal? framework.  


His last solo record also features a number of collaborators I wasn't familiar with, sans the very jazz-centric Jimmy Chamberlin (The Smashing Pumpkins, Jimmy Chamberlin Complex), featured on the closing track "CIRCLE", which is probably my favorite track on the album.

There has been a couple singles released so far ahead of the album (below), and while I'm not positive Cedric is on all or more of them (he mentions other collabs on it with Tigran Hamasyan and Nathan Schram, the latter of which is also on the released single "BIRDS SINGING ON THE MOON"), the first two singles of the 14 total tracks have been their collaborations.

I'll link his Bandcamp below, which features the aforementioned 'SPIRAL' from 2024.  He had another solo record called 'Revolver' in 2013 that I haven't tracked down yet.  Their upcoming record 'SIGNAL TO BURNING' will be out on April 1st.