From Noah Sent Thu, Mar 18th 1999, 19:19
From Noah Sent Thu, Mar 18th 1999, 19:19
You know, a long time ago when i had only heard a couple Laswell
discs i felt his music was boring, then i hunted down a few dub
releases people said were among the best. After hearing them
i began to understand moreso the great scope of his musical
vision, which petty comments by a few ignorant IDM-heads can
hardly diminish. I can't point to any one person in the music
industry period who could take more responsibility for networking
so many artists together (who never would have met) and for
recording so many other artists whom he felt deserved to be heard.
He's been doing this since before most of you were born....
He wrote much of Herbie Hancock's "Rocket" for crying out loud!
Of course, this sort of puts his partner Robert Musso into the
shadows when he really might deserve about as much credit as Bill
himself. Check out the Transonic project to hear some Musso's and
Laswell's fantastic world/space dub, and i have reviews available
for all three (a forth has been recorded also and they are
currently looking for a label to release it on).
xx@x
ps- below is a review of Possession for all you non-believers...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 23:00:40 -0500 (CDT)
From: Noah <xxxxxxx@xxxxx.xx.xxx.xxx>
Subject: review: Possession
Many moons ago, xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx wrote:
> can anyone review bill laswell's possession: african dub?
> and no, i don't want to argue about whether or not it's ambient.
Hope this isn't too far after the fact...
Possession: African Dub (SubMeta/Off World One)
As one of the major landmarks in Laswell's Dub Empire, this richly layered
CD is similar to the Transonic series in that it is built around heavy,
lumbering hilly dub beats and a phat bassline. But Possession is markedly
less minimal and is packed a little thicker with such worldly instruments
as the gony and baliphone. This is a likeable intersection of the
overly westernized lowrider mentality with genuine African soundsources.
Regions involved in this fusion are the West African coast and the French
Sudan areas. The chants and rainsticks in >Echo< are suggestive of a
vibrant yet hidden rainforest lavishly covered in mosses and vines. A
great opening track for the album. A rolling avalanche of drums
introduces >Rainfall< which features an initial repeating Bass Phase and
then a lovely theme from a stringed instrument I can't identify. These
tracks are at once rugged and versatile, yet sound also meticulously
planned out. The only downside I can see is that at 45 minutes,
the disc is kind of short. >Shadow Crossing< starts out with loops of
tribal voices and some melodic percussion. After a few moments, other
elements tumble out of the brew, Bill's bass and some slick rimshots fill
the empty areas out well. Things go from beatless to dub and back again.
The final track, >Ascending<, has a little more of a "dark" feel to it.
This track shares a similarity with >Rainfall< in that both contain a
higher, plucked string theme. There is also a loop of what I believe to
be a portion of the Baraka soundtrack: I think the loop is lifted from
the first 30 seconds or so from #10 on the soundtrack, Finale. If you are
familiar with it, it's kind of a low rumbling drone type of sound.
Anyway, combined with the other elements of the song, which are mostly
playful and innocent, this loop brings out an impression of impending
doom. Perhaps the contrast is suggesting that the world of thick greenery
is gradually disappearing, and there is little the people in that world
can do to stop this. They go on rejoicing and celebrating the existence
of nature perhaps unaware of the dangers that hang over them. Truly
Possession is music that respects the culture it intercepts.
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|nf0rm@+|0n x@x+5 +0 b3 fr33
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