Mickey Hart and Planet Drum, “In the Groove.”

The weird thing about getting a bunch of legendary percussionists from around the world together to make a record: It may only appeal to hardcore drum nuts, or that rare slice of society that loves throbbing world beat as background noise. Or the score of a documentary of exotic places.

Otherwise, it’s hard to wrap one’s head around the return of Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart on Planet Drum’s new record, In the Groove. That was assuredly far more fun to record than for the average music fan to listen. Drums jams are like that, even ones this coordinated. Watching a race car zoom around a track a few hundred times might be fun to watch. But it can’t compare to actually driving the car.

The title is apt. Hart and his drummates and world music artists Zakir Hussain, Giovanni Hidalgo and Sikiru Adepoju certainly find their collective grooves. There’s not a lot of solo straying on In the Groove, Planet Drum’s follow up to 2007’s Global Drum Project, which won a Grammy for best contemporary world music album in 2009.

It’s not bad listening, to be sure. But its specialty listening. Especially if you’re into the premise of regional, ethnic drumming, getting to the intricacies of the rhythms, where they come from, how each percussive sidebar takes certain paths and how they all come together again. Then repeat.

Hart and friends waste no time getting to the meat of the sandwich, with opener (and likely the record’s best song) “King Clave.” They hit you with a wall of percussion patterns, then peel back various layers and let them go where they go, weaving in melody along the way. It feels a bit like Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk,” if the march was arranged halfway around the world with more intricacies. Well-placed dynamics arrangements really showcase some power when the march restarts, then splits in four of five separate syncopated directions that almost becomes call and response.

“Storm Drum,” starts as described, with layers, counter-rhythms acting as melodies imitating weather. But at some point, the tempo starts to blend with other songs on the record that works against different songs standing out from each other. Same for “Tides,” which crosses into some offbeat, almost Euro-disco territory that gets overly repetitive.

The playing and arranging on In the Groove are both first-rate. The precision and coordination are airtight and impressive. But it’s not clear – especially with the lack of dramatic variation in tempos – where some of the songs begin and end.

“Drops” slows some and catches a nice groove, within some expressive playing. “Phil Da Glass” meanders some, with a few theatric effects, but nothing that really takes hold as worth remembering. The best thing one could say about “Gadago Gadago” is that at times it sounds like an Oingo Bongo opening before taking a turn and growing layers of chanting and added percussion until much of it drops out, going back to some ear-pleasing syncopated instrumentation. In the Groove ends almost as strong as it begins.

Follow music critic Tony Hicks at Twitter.com/TonyBaloney1967.