Bill Laswell - Bill Laswell

(~): 2002

Track List:

1. Psychonavigation - Black Dawn
2. Divination - Descent
3. Above The Earth
4. Bob Marley - The Heathen (Bill Laswell Ambient Dub Mix)
5. Sacred System - Babylon Ghost
6. Commander Guevara
7. Sacred System - Galactic Zone
8. White Arc Spiral
9. Bonus: Brian Eno - 1/1

Not as redundant a burned disc as you'd expect, but yeah, I've gathered a few of these on their proper albums now (Sacred System's Book Of Entrance and that Bob Marley remix project). Still, that's another handful of Bill Laswell jams I haven't gotten either, hence why this old personal compilation has remained with me all this time. I had to do something with all those Laswell tracks I nabbed off AudioGalaxy, see, put some order into that bundle of discographical chaos. Oh, how little did I know I was just barely scratching the surface of how deep it went. Ah well, it's a pretty tidy little summation of his '90s work, mostly on that ambient jazz-dub tip.

Like, I didn't even realize I'd gotten one of the Psychonavigation cuts, though listening to Black Dawn, and those distinct Pete Namlook synths in play, the similarities to those sessions is very apparent. I probably didn't clue in though, since this is a shorter version of the track, whereas the original was over a dozen minutes long. Apparently this cut comes from a double-disc compendium of Laswell music called, um, Ambient Compendium. Also from this compilation is Descent, which originally appeared in longer form on the third Divination album, Akasha. It's along the same lines as the minimalist stuff that project offered.

The other three tracks come from a pair of Bill's regular albums – yes, he even released under his own name too! Above The Earth is more typical of his heavy bass-dub ethnic music, though with the added 'gimmick' of some spoken word stuff too. Meanwhile, Commander Guevara and White Arc Spiral come from Invisible Design, which features different bass tones compared to his vintage low, grumbly style. These are mellow, soft, almost in the range of treble, and played far jazzier than his other stuff I've covered. I'm sure bass guitar experts could fill you in the precise details, but I honestly can't be bothered to do the research. If Laswell's guttural bass tone isn't to your liking though, maybe this one would do you better.

Well, that was a fun little dive into more Bill Laswell, but what's this at the end? A Brian Eno track? And not just any Brian Eno track, but the first track from his first ambient album, Music For Airports (aka: the piano one). What's that doing here?

Ah, see, it comes back to that whole 'raiding AudioGalaxy' thing. Naturally I'd have searched out some Eno, since it was Very Important to ambient as a whole and all that. I saw I had some space left on my disc, and had 1/1 in my folder, so figured may as well stick it on here. I really ought to get Music For Airports proper-like at some point though.

Divination - Ambient Dub, Volume II: Dead Slow

Subharmonic: 1993

A second volume of ambient dub under the Divination guise? Heck, there might even exist a Volume III, but not with this alias. Divination did extend beyond this album though, a couple LPs and a double-LP marking the project's total story. And that's just what Laswell did with this one! When you consider his stuff as Sacred System, Praxis, Axiom Records, both projects with Pete Namlook (not to mention his tag-in with Pete and Klause Schulz), and a zillion more items I'd run out of self-imposed word count before detailing them all (just... so many...), is it any wonder covering this man's work is a neigh impossible task? I mean, just look at Divination! I doubt most folks (if any) reading this blog even knew it existed before I name-dropped it in that Alien Ambient Galaxy compilation, and here I'm tellin' you not only it existed, but includes six CDs worth of music; yet it's barely a side-side project in Laswell's career. Dude's got Merzbow levels of productivity, and probably about as much musical consistency.

If there's any consistency in Divination, it's that there's never the same bundle of musicians joining Laswell for a jam with each album. The first had Nicky Skopelitis, Liu Sola, Buckethead (!), and Robert Musso in the studio with the Laswellian one. This outing, however, has Mick Harris, Jeff Bova, and fellow bassist Jah Wobble. He'd pair up with these guys on several more projects outside this one too, and is that ever a list and a half, I tell you wh'ut.

Having the right crew in for a jam makes a heck of a difference between these two Ambient Dub albums. Volume 1 had dudes with more of an industrial and acid rock background, chaps who prefer doing noisy assaults than ambient spliff music, and didn't really mesh with the whole 'ambient dub' idea. The peoples on Volume II, however, have no problem exploring the deeper end of bass 'n dub, which makes Dead Slow an overall stronger showing of what Laswell's take on 'ambient dub' is all about. Also, the mixdown is better balanced, no shocking leaps in voluminous muddy bass drowning things out. Or weird vocal chants, for that matter.

As with Volume 1, Volume II flits between shorter, minimalist droning pieces, and lengthier jams with thumping rhythms, burbling dubby electronics, and that bass tone intermingling for fifteen minutes apiece. In the great annals of Laswell's dub discography, I'd still rate this a touch below his Sacred System stuff, but it's still enjoyable for the style of music it's setting out to be. Except maybe that lengthy sonic dub experiment as the final track, but that's easily skippable.

By the by, the album's curious sub-title comes from a traffic sign photographer Ira Harvey Cohen spotted in India. The inlay includes it, with an Indian man wearing nothing but a turban, some beads, and a loose loin cloth smoking underneath (cute). Figures Laswell would interpret it as a musical concept too.

Divination - Ambient Dub Volume 1

Subharmonic: 1993

Holy cow, another ambient dub collection that isn't the seminal Ambient Dub series from Beyond? Just how many ambient dub collections are there? Uh, not that many more, I'm sure. Like, after learning AudioGalaxy was a thing, I scoured the app for “ambient dub” because of course I would, and aside from a ton of Bill Laswell music, didn't find much else. Most prominent of the bassist's offerings were his 'ambient dub translations' of Bob Marley tunes, but these Divination albums came first. Just shortly after Beyond's offerings, in fact, practically concurrently. Coincidence, mayhaps?

Eh, if I'm willing to offer a theory (and I am!), Beyond released their first volume of ambient dub, and Laswell heard it. As a jazz purist though, he was unimpressed by the musicianship involved, so the O.G. jazz-dub dude took it upon himself to show these newer cats how it's done, bringing in a bunch of his pals for some sessions on what he feels is Proper Ambient Dub, none of this pseudo downtempo raver comedown nonsense. Wow, who'd have that something as micro-niche as ambient dub could have a rivalry!

Well, that's a fun theory, though you'd have to ask Mr. Laswell himself whether it's accurate or not. Heck, given his relentless output, I wonder if he even remembers the original inspiration for these Divination albums. Maybe he just needed some fresh material to launch his new Subharmonic label, and since 'ambient dub' was a trending tag in the early '90s, figured it would help sell his stuff better. The truth is out there, somewhere in the ether between echoing bass tones!

Speaking of aliens, yes, this is the same Divination that appeared on that Alien Ambient Galaxy compilation, with two tracks from here appearing there (among the Elsewheres): Errata and Delta. As pieces of pure minimalist ambient dub, they're neat compositions, but more as interludes in this album, most tracks surprisingly upbeat for a record billing itself as 'ambient dub' (oh no, it's happening again!).

Opener Divination One has a chill groove going for it, with Laswell's bass tones guiding us along, and suits the concept of ambient dub nicely. Follow-up twelve-minute long Seven Heavens, however, has quite the thumping techno beat, interspersed with long, synthy ambient breakdowns, and why is the low-end of the mixdown so overcranked? I know Laswell's a bassist and all, but everything sounds so muddy here. Meanwhile, the back half of the album trends closer to the domain of world beat, with ethnic wailing (some samples, but original chants from Liu Sola too), tabla drumming, and burbling sonics. Ooh, and I think I heard some of Buckethead's guitar work in there too, though as with everything else, is mostly buried under muddy bass.

There's some interesting ideas here, but if this was meant to be an opening salvo on Laswell's part in doing Proper Ambient Dub, he was still a bit off from creating something refined and long-lasting. See his Sacred System releases for such a take.

Various - Alien Ambient Galaxy

Hypnotic: 1996

When did I first discover Bill Laswell? This CD right here, which is funny, because it's not indicative of his larger, massive, ginormous body of work. I mean, only one track of the featured eight even has much of his distinct bass playing – it's a super long track, but still, just one. I probably heard him prior, but had no clue he existed, if that makes sense. You can hear some musicians – especially sessions musicians – in a multitude of songs without ever knowing who they are. Sure, one could study liner notes of every booklet and Discogs entry to know every performer ever, but man, who'd want to?

Had little choice with Alien Ambient Galaxy though, the only credits offering nothing but liner notes. Hell, the back cover just lists all the players involved, with no attribution to the list of tracks. For all you'd know, everyone performed together as one big conglomerate. Bill Laswell, Jah Wobble, Jeff Bova, Alex Hass, Pete Namlook, Liu Sola, Buckethead (yes, that Buckethead), Robert Musso, Mick Harris, and Nicky Skopelitis are... Alien Ambient Galaxy!

But no, that's not the case. In fact, only three projects actually make up this compilation, all of which Laswell had some hand in, care of his short-lived Subharmonic print. Most prominently featured is Divination, a world music, ambient drone project that could be considered a proper conglomerate of musicians. There's four tracks of the group here, but they're mostly subtle, droning pieces, serving more as transitional tracks between the other ones. I'll talk about them more at a later date, but again, I must give a flustered name-drop in seeing Buckethead's there.

A few other tracks are from Cypher 7, a duo consisting of Hass and Bova, with Laswell performing “navigation & ground control”. These are more interesting, giving Alien Ambient Galaxy some needed diversity and flair. Conspiracy Of Silence opens the CD with mysterious, ominous tones, feeding into alien paranoia that was so popular in the '90s, while The Suspicious Shamen does an upbeat ambient dub thing with piano flourishes. Nothing Lasts, meanwhile, features a bouncy beat while French actress Jeanne Moreau drunkenly laments about lost passion. Not sure how it ties into an alien ambient concept, but it's a cool sounding tune nonetheless.

And finally, clocking in at over thirty-eight minutes, is one of Bill and Pete's Psychonavigation outings – the lengthy track with the lengthy title of Psychic And UFO Revelations In The Last Days. It features Laswell's bass, Namlook's space pads, a simple dubby rhythm, a lot of dithering passages of music interspersed with sci-fi effects, and strangely hypnotic throughout its runtime. Plus, it contains dialog from the DS9 episode Emissary, so instant awesome right there.

Strange presentation aside, Alien Ambient Galaxy is a nifty little collection of tunes if you like your ambient on the mysterious side of things. Even with the amount of Laswellian music I've since heard, this still remains a remarkably unique offering of what he's made within his vast discography.

Klaus Schulze & Pete Namlook featuring Bill Laswell - The Dark Side Of The Moog VII

Fax +49-69/450464/MIG: 1998/2016

This series resembles a ‘90s TV show more than I initially gave it credit for. The first few albums/seasons were the feeling-out process, launching with the premise, figuring out what makes the concept work, and hoping you find enough of an audience before getting canceled. Okay, I doubt Namlook would have pulled the plug on The Dark Side Of The Moog if sales were poor, the chance at collaborating with Klaus Schulze a passion project more than anything. Plus, given Fax +49-69/450464’s strict limitation of pressed copies, how could you determine popularity through sales anyway? By how fast they sell out? What they go for on the second-hand market? Incessant pleas from fans for more copies, just this one time, oh please!?

Back to the TV analogy. While The Dark Side Of The Moog had tweaked and refined some aspects of its concept for the first few seasons/albums, it wasn’t until its fourth that things coalesced into something truly distinct in of itself. The Schulze/Namlook tandem was finally working as a mutual work, with both participants accentuating each other’s strengths while helping hide their weaknesses. The loose, freeform approach to each album prior settled into a concrete core if not in vision, then at least in structure. And who can forget that brilliant bit of stunt-casting with legendary bassist Bill Laswell, adding a fresh dynamic to the established interplay between the two main stars.

As with most successful TV shows, we’re in the Golden Years of the series now, but almost uniformly it’s around Season 7 where we find the first flecks of froth in the inevitable backwash of creative success. The Dark Side Of The Moog VII has these hallmarks too. For sure it maintains what’s worked before with the same degree of polish and finesse, but a few cracks of staleness unfortunately crop up too. For one, at an even fifty minutes long, this is the shortest album in this series, period. Laswell’s input is almost completely moot by this point too. He still contributes to two of the six tracks, but beyond some dubby effects lurking in the mix of Part I and space drone in Part III, I don’t hear much of his distinct sonic ticks. I know these tracks are Pink Floyd puns, but Obscured By Klaus seems entirely apt in this outing.

Part I and II mix into one another, moving from Berlin-School ambient to electro. The album then radically changes tone with Part III, nineteen minutes of spacey ambient that moves into another round of spacey electro in Part IV. I’d like this more if one of the synth solos wasn’t among the lamest I’ve ever heard (even from trance camps!). The final two parts, at nearly twelve minutes total, mostly shows off Schulze’s modern classical chops, again fine but nothing we haven’t heard before - which I can say for this album in general too. It’s little surprise only one piece was tapped from here for that Evolution retrospective of the series.

Klaus Schulze & Pete Namlook featuring Bill Laswell - The Dark Side Of The Moog VI

Fax +49-69/450464/MIG: 1997/2016

The Dark Side Of The Moog has seen many ideas for its cover art, details of which I’ve included in the hover text in the image for each review (you… did know you could hover text all this time, right?). Let’s delve into this one a little further though. No, it’s not because I need to burn self-imposed word count after six albums of Schulze-n-Namlook sessions. This is important!

So, this is the CD cover art that comes within MIG’s reissue box sets. They’re all essentially identical, but for the fact Earth inches further down the image with each album. For instance, it started beside Klaus’ name with the first CD, is at about the mid-point here in the middle-albums, and will lay near the bottom by the final CD. A cute enough premise, but it wrecks all sorts of logic if you understand orbital mechanics.

Look at the illuminated sides of the moon and Earth – north to south, right? Thus, from this particular perspective, the solar orbital ecliptic is a horizontal line in the middle of the picture. As Luna’s circling dance with us also remains on the plane of the ecliptic, that would mean Earth should, in fact, be moving right to left in each subsequent CD, not north to south. How did the art design screw this up so bad? Like, they got the orbital mechanics correct with the box set’s main art, so they can’t be ignorant of such a fundamental property of space physics. Did they imagine Earth to have undergone a cataclysmic change of its axial rotation, flipping it by ninety degrees like Uranus? That would allow for a ‘north-south’ motion of Earth from the moon’s perspective with its side illuminated as such, but then where’s the debris field of such an event? Where’s the debris field?

Sorry, but if RedLetterMedia has taught me anything, it’s that there’s humor in nitpicking micro-minutia. Fun times!

Anyhow, Dark Side Of The Moog VI brings us The Final DAT, giving me pause whether Schulze and Namlook were thinking this might finally end their frequent collaborations. Nah, I doubt it, the two still finding new ways of tinkering with their formula even at this late stage. Well, ‘late’ being relative, the project only three years removed from its initial conception. Plenty o’ fire left to burn, especially with these two incessant music makers involved (Laswell too).

The Final DAT has a mish-mash of individual tracks, very long compositions, and pieces extending through different Parts. Part V is the lengthiest at over twenty-four minutes, and is all kinds of space-synthy awesome while at it. Part II and III goes from grand cosmic beat (like, world beat, only… cosmic) into brisk space-synth of its own – oh, and neither III or V feature standard kicks either. Crafty. Part IV with Laswell does have soft, minimalist techno going on, but adds a de-e-e-ep sub-bass line to the trip. Wait, is this proto-microfunk? No, wait, there’s electric guitar jamming too. Never mind.

Klaus Schulze & Pete Namlook featuring Bill Laswell - The Dark Side Of The Moog V

Fax +49-69/450464/MIG: 1996/2016

One box set down, one to go. Sorry, fans of Dark Side Of The Moog IX-XI, but I ain’t springing for the third volume of this reissue series just yet. Getting the first two was pricey enough, and if television rules apply to music, then anything past Season 8 is guaranteed Zombie Years. Concept worn dry, sprinkled with gimmicks in futile hopes of spicing up the stagnation, not to mention a Sweeps Baiting surprise wedding for one of the more popular ‘ships on the series. Mind, I’m almost certain Bill Laswell never hooked up with Schulze or Namlook in such a manner, not even in some weird subset of synth fanfiction. (please don’t tell me Rule 34 has produced such a thing…)

Actually, Laswell’s contributions to Dark Side Of The Moog were on the wane by this point, offering his input on just two tracks for session number V (aka: Psychedelic Brunch). We’re also further from the ‘single song’ concept the project started out with, this album the trackiest of the lot yet. Whereas prior CDs had a sense of continuous themes explored throughout, segueing into each part as it played out, this one has distinct tracks from one another, no ideas carried over or re-explored elsewhere in the album. Perhaps the closest we get is Part III and Part VIII, though almost entirely due to them using similar, stuttery downbeat rhythms between them. At first I thought these were the two cuts Laswell had a hand in, as he is the most rhythmically minded of the three, but nay, only Part III is where he crops up, plus droning dark ambient piece Part VII, sounding rather similar to his work as Divination at that. Also, but damn, Parts III and VIII has a lot in common with the sort of psy-chill I’ve heard coming from the Ultimae and Altar ranks over the years – talk about your ‘ahead of its time’ narratives, but then that’s long been the talking point regarding Berlin School synth work anyway.

If there is any sort of unifying theme to Psychedelic Brunch, it’s in letting the individual aspects of the players involved strut their stuff. Schulze’s use of traditional synths in a classical sense (re: Berlin-School) prominently feature in Part II, IV and VI. Meanwhile, Part V, the centerpiece of this album at over sixteen minutes of length, plays to Namlook’s meditative approach to ‘90s ambient music, the sort of stuff likely heard in chill-rooms rather than art-houses. And heck, even the inventor of the Moog, Robert Moog, shows up, in an introductory bit of dialog. He also shills his email for some reason, though considering this was 1996, maybe they thought doing so added to the futurism of the project? Wait, wasn’t ‘retro-futurism’ the whole point in the first place, bridging the generation gap while taking the ‘70s and ‘90s into an undiscovered country? Where can Dark Side Of The Moog even go now? Man, all this projected crisis of faith over an email.

Klaus Schulze & Pete Namlook featuring Bill Laswell - The Evolution Of The Dark Side Of The Moog

Ambient World/MIG: 2002/2016

I wasn’t considering detailing the bonus discs of these Dark Side Of The Moog box sets. True, I’ve a commitment to reviewing Every.Single. CD. of my music collection, but I’ve fudged things here and there. Most double-disc entries receive a lone write-up from yours truly, and even 3CD sets are sometimes reduced to a singular offering of my self-imposed word count (sorry, Trade: Past-Present-Future; not-sorry, This Is… Techno). What harm is there in quickly glossing over redundant features, of which I’m almost certain these bonus discs are. What does Vol. 1 of this bundle include anyhow?

The Evolution Of The Dark Side Of The Moog, eh. Huh, it’s got completely different cover art from all the stock ones used for the other CDs. It also apparently contains tracks from each of the first eight editions of the series (or ‘excerpts’ in the case of Wish You Were There and A Saucerful Of Ambience, since those two weren’t indexed as typical albums). I guess this would serve as a handy hour-long summation of Namlook’s work with Schulze, picking out the highlights, or at least the best musical representation of the project. Why stop at Dark Side Of The Moog VIII though, when the series made it all the way to XI? There’s more than meets the eye with this CD, and I must find out. I must!

*clickity-clickty clack; searching Lord Discogs ain’t wack*

Well I’ll be darned. The Evolution Of The Dark Side Of The Moog was indeed a separate release, put out on Fax +49-69/450464 reissue sublabel Ambient World. And as it came out in 2002, there was only eight volumes of Dark Side Of The Moog available anyway. This… also means that I now must review this CD as its own entity, but out of alphabetical order since it’s contained within this first box set. My OCD is sending conflicting demands.

Charmingly, it opens with a bit of dialog from Robert Moog himself, offering an introduction to The Dark Side Of The Moog, plus his email address or some reason. This was used in the fifth album of the series, and has now thusly ruined the surprise for the next review. Thanks, MIG!

Only a three minute synthy piece from Wish You Were There makes the cut for this Dark Side Of The Moog mega-showcase, but A Saucerful Of Secrets gets a whopping fifteen minutes plucked from its lengthy runtime. Fortunately, it’s the best fifteen minutes of that session, starting with energetic techno before heading into another synth solo from Schulze. Part III and Part IV of Phantom Heart Brother shows up, and if you can’t remember which those were, um… it’s the electro piece, and the synth heavy techno piece. Three Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn features Part VII and VIII, a short drone portion followed by another techno work with Laswell Bass (Ace Track, remember?). And as for the remaining tracks, I’ll tackle them when I come to them properly. Y’know, spoilers and all.

Klaus Schulze & Pete Namlook featuring Bill Laswell - The Dark Side Of The Moog IV

Fax +49-69/450464/MIG: 1996/2016

Mr. Kuhlmann worked with dozens of musicians in his time, but only a few did he continuously pair up with. Naturally Klaus Schulze is one such individual, otherwise we wouldn’t be diving into a twelve volume series called The Dark Side Of The Moog right now. Move D. (David Moufang) was another one, though the bulk of their collaborations took place in the new millennium. Then there’s Bill Laswell, who’s worked with so many musicians (just, so many…), a couple sessions with The Namlookian One was a no-brainer. I’ve already talked about their Psychonavigation work, and between that and their Outland side-project, they racked up eleven albums total, most produced before the year 2000. Seems natural then, that Mr. Laswell would get himself in on those Dark Side Of The Moog sessions while hanging out at Namlook’s studio. Why absolutely these modern Berlin-School works could use some heavy dub bass action. It’s, like, old-school meets new-school, with a dash of middle-school thrown in! Yeah, I know, Laswell’s more known for his ‘90s work than ‘80s material (including the project Material), but that darn tagline got stuck in my head, and damned if I don’t get it out!

Having ol’ Bill onboard makes for a radically different album in the Dark Side Of The Moog canon, with less adherence to Schulze’s approach to music craft. In fact, this album is remarkably uptempo considering the players involved – even Namlook’s take on trance was slowly on the wane by ’96. For sure Three Pipers At The Gates of Dawn (Part I) has the hallmarks of a typical Dark Side Of The Moog outing, with minimalist sounds and effects floating about. Yet there’s also a sense of urgency too, building synth strings and intermittent sci-fi noises escalating the piece’s tension.

By the time the brisk pace of Part II drops, it all feels worth the wait, a right hum-dinger of a… trance track? No, it’s not really that. For starters, it’s nearly twenty-two minutes long, and most trance just don’t do that (unless you’re Oliver Lieb). Secondly, while it has the mini-arp bassline and high-bpm, the actual kick is quite soft, leading to a rather tame rhythm section in service of the synth and dub action going on throughout. And it seems each contributor to this piece has their own moment to shine, whether it’s Namlook doing his sci-fi effects thing, Schulze doing his synth solo thing (a charming, whistling number), or Laswell adding extra *oomph* to the bottom end without ever overshadowing the others.

Part II really is the main talking point on here, but here’s a few additional notes. Most of the remaining tracks (nine in total) are brief, droney, experimental pieces, few breaching three minutes in length. Part V does a little techno for its short running time, and hey, Laswell’s bass! Part VIII explores the idea more, over eight minutes worth. It’s cool, but nothing we haven’t heard from the players involved before. Man, that Part II tho’… hoo!

Bill Laswell - Axiom Ambient: Lost In Translation

Axiom: 1994

A curious double-LP, this one, though not for any of the music within. As this is a Bill Laswell ambient dub album from his peak ambient dub music making years, you can bet your bottom dollar it’s filled with swirly sounds, jazzy grooves, ethnic samplings, and that bass tone. Nay, what’s rather confounding about Axiom Ambient: Lost In Translation is exactly what sort of release this is. There’s so many collaborations on here, such that I wonder whether ‘Axiom Ambient’ could be construed as a project name rather than an album title – it wouldn’t be the first time Mr. Laswell took on an unique moniker for yet another venture with his huge evergrowing population of associates that rules from the center of the bassworld.

Oh yeah, The Orb is on this album. It doesn’t clarify which member of The Orb is here though, and as this is a ’94 release, it could very well be a member that most definitely is no longer a member, and will never again be a member, so help him Gaia. On the other hand, it could have been Dr. Paterson dropping by Laswell’s house for a toke-n-smoke, fiddling with some effects overtop Aum while enjoying the buzz, then giving his blessing to use The Orb brand for marketing purposes. Who’s in charge of that stuff at head Orb office anyway?

Plenty more folks Laswell knows through the rock, jazz, funk, and world-fusion scenes drop by too. Many you probably know: George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Pharoah Sanders, Buckethead, and Tetsu Inoue. Lesser number you may know: Jah Wobble, Terre Thaemlitz, Eddie Hazel, and Sonny Sharrock. And if you’re familiar with Ginger Baker, Nicky Skopelitis, and Liu Sola, well damn, Mr. John Peel, how are things in the Afterlife? Some material is remixed from other Axiom releases (including Material), but mostly we’re dealing with all original music here.

There’s a lot about Axiom Ambient that can come off terribly pretentious at first glance. Each CD features four extra-long tracks, separated into movements themselves. That Orb collaboration, Aum, has four segments alone, titled Soul Searcher, Praying Mantra (Second Attention), Tarab Scan, and Ritual In Transfigured Time. If you think that’s a bit much, the liner notes have two pages going on about the mystical healing nature of world fusion ambient within a heightened global consciousness. Hey, fine if you vibe on psychik chakras and that, but most of it comes off as ostentatious waffle to my eyes, and rather dated to ‘90s alt-life optimism.

Fortunately, it’s what’s going into my ears that matters, and Axiom Ambient is a surprisingly immersive experience once it gets going. Laswell displays plenty skill and finesse, melding the various contributions from tons of talented musicians into a trippy, relaxing journey. Orchestral swells, mystic chants, guitar jams, techno thumps, calming drones, Far East winds, and best of all, none of it feels like superfluous meandering. Go figure that the longest Laswell album I’ve covered is his most engaging from front to back.

Sacred System - Chapter One: Book Of Entrance (2015 Update)

Reachout International Records: 1996

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review)

Ah, nuts. There was some very crucial information that needed updating from my original TranceCritic review of this album. I've already wasted it in the review of Dub Chamber 3 though. I could have burned some word count with it, because regarding the music itself, there's not much else I can add to Book Of Entrance. Eh, what the heck, I'll just copy and paste it here. It's not like anyone remembers a Bill Laswell review from twenty-nine months ago. Woo, self-plagorization!

Dub Chamber 3 is one of his solo efforts though; or rather, him and whoever he invites over for a jam. Don’t bother looking for a Dub Chamber 1 or 2, as they don’t exist. This was, however, his third album released on Reachout International Records, the two prior being his Sacred System material. To confound discographers further, his fourth ROIR album was once again as Sacred System, but also titled Dub Chamber 4 (subtitled Book Of Exit, a nice call-back to the first album). And, that’s not even the end of his ROIR output, where he released a compilation of Sacred Dub System Chamber material, plus a collaboration project with Roots Tonic, not to mention- help! I’m being swallowed by Laswell’s discography! It’s so massive, it has a gravitational pull of its own!

*whew* Good thing I escaped it a second time!

But yes, I incorrectly titled this album way back when, in part because I figured Bill Laswell’s name was more important for referencing than the alias he used for Reachout. Also, everyone just calls Book Of Entrance a Laswell album because that’s what it is, but as Lord Discogs lists this as a Sacred System album, here it is correctly titled thus.

One other thing I feel needs clarifying from that old piece of writing is my claim that ‘bass-driven’ music isn’t terribly popular. Why, 2005 Sykonee must be an imbecile if he believes that. Just look at all the forms of bass music that dominates electronic music. Hell, even rhythmic reggae dub, from which Laswell is drawing influence from on Book Of Entrance, has a dedicated following of rastas and spliff heads. All true, but very seldom are those instances where bass leads through improvisation with everything else complementing. Even modern bass-heavy genres like trap and dubstep are about the effects those low frequencies have on your mind and body rather than guiding you through a musical journey. I doubt many festival goers would have time for the lengthy sessions Laswell indulges in. Hell, I sometimes don’t, and I actually like most of Bill’s material.

Finally, Book Of Entrance kicks off the huge block of music within my collection known as “Albums Beginning With ‘S’” – with a mislabel, of all things, heh. There are a few other mislabels, but even dismissing those, this could take me through the summer. And my reward for its completion? Taking on the equally massive section called “Albums Beginning With ‘T’”. The obsession must be satisfied!

Psychonavigation - Psychonavigation 5

Fax +49-69/450464: 2002

Pete Namlook and Bill Laswell were practically made for each other. Not so much for their musical styles, but in their ridiculous work rate and endless collaborative projects with other musicians far and wide. That they'd end up releasing ambient-leaning albums together was inevitable, and it figures they'd settle on two aliases for the task, Psychonavigation and Outland. Nine LPs came out from their work together, plus undoubtedly many more guest spots Laswell contributed to other Namlook works (I know of at least two albums from the Klause Schulze collaboration Dark Side Of The Moog). A lot of music then, yet little of which gets referenced or talked up when discussing either career. The general sounds most associate with Laswell (bass heavy dub, ethnic fusion, dark ambient) doesn't often jive with the sounds Namlook's known for (ambient techno, space music, jazzy chill-out), so the thought of the two collaborating for even one session, let alone over a dozen, is often passed by.

Okay, enough rambly pre-amble. Whatever one thinks of Psychonavigation or Outland, there’s a hard-written fact you just don’t overlook regarding Namlook: if you find first-run copies of Fax +49-69/450464 material, you snatch that shit up post-haste! Them suckers are rare as all hell, and while Ambient World was kind enough to re-issue many of them a decade ago, they too have grown increasingly expensive and rare. Plus, there’s nothing quite like having an original Fax-Plus CD in hand, vintage artwork and all. And wouldn’t you know it, I found this CD sitting idly in a major chain way out Canada west here. Dudes... dudettes... that’s just ridiculous! True, it’s the last of the Psychonavigation series, released at a time when most wouldn’t give it much care anyway (neither Laswell nor Namlook were generating much buzz in the early ‘00s), but still... “Limitation: 2000”, and I gots me one!

Oh, the music within? It’s... not what I was expecting, quite different from what the two were making in the mid-‘90s. True, it’d be foolish to not expect some developments and evolution in their work, but thumping techno? Opener The Catalyst has a thick, tribal stomp going for it alongside burbly alien noises, and though not as driving as most techno of the time, it wouldn’t sound too out of place in a warehouse setting. At the other end of this album is Life Eternal, which is more typical of the Psychonavigation stylee with dark ambience, super-dubbed sounds, and minimalist groove. Nice opening synth melody too, for as long as it lasts anyway.

The main featuring, however, is Cryosleep, a whopping thirty-two minutes with change, though broken up into four parts. Good, because the opening part, Preparation, has an overbearing synth drone running for its ten minute duration, and is not worth enduring for the subtle dub-tribal rhythm build underneath. The remainder of Cryosleep has more alien tribal-techno dub-thump going on, plus some cool samples from Vin Diesel. Man, it’s been a long time since I last watched Pitch Black...

Bill Laswell - Dub Chamber 3

ROIR: 2000

Wow, another Bill Laswell release. Over-exposure, much? Now you know what it’s like following dub music, period. The bassist is quite literally everywhere, cropping up at times even when you least expect it. You’ll be listening to some world dub vibes when suddenly, that bass tone makes itself known. Rushing to the credit notes, you realize, yep, there he is again. Quite the mercenary, Mr. Laswell be.

Dub Chamber 3 is one of his solo efforts though; or rather, him and whoever he invites over for a jam. Don’t bother looking for a Dub Chamber 1 or 2, as they don’t exist. This was, however, his third album released on Reachout International Records, the two prior being his Sacred System material. To confound discographers further, his fourth ROIR album was once again as Sacred System, but also titled Dub Chamber 4 (subtitled Book Of Exit, a nice call-back to the first album). And, that’s not even the end of his ROIR output, where he released a compilation of Sacred Dub System Chamber material, plus a collaboration project with Roots Tonic, not to mention- help! I’m being swallowed by Laswell’s discography! It’s so massive, it has a gravitational pull of its own!

Back on this release, we have only four tracks to deal with. Yep, they’re long ones, and oh are they ever jazzy. Aside from second tune Cybotron, I can never remember how any of these go. Well, that’s not entirely accurate, as they’re currently occupying a slightly hazy corner of my brain, but that’s only because I just listened to them. Mark my words, within a day or two, they’ll be forgotten again until I happen to hear a clip (“Oh yeah, that one has that bit with the spacey trumpet. Now I remember, that one has the nice guitar tones. Oh, I didn’t know it slowed down there. Didn’t I hear this before?”).

Cybotron though, that one sticks out for me for a couple reasons. Obviously first, the name, but more than that, it’s one of Laswell’s spaced-out dub-reggae jams, and as a point of personal preference, I enjoy his material the more outworldly it sounds. Plus, the bass tones used are a deep rumble, some of my favorite under the Laswell name, and probably due to this being a collaboration with Jah Wobble, another bassist of significant note (are they dueling basslines? Awesome if so!). I recall Muzik Magazine often ripping into Laswell, calling him the “poor man’s Jah Wobble”, but as I’ve only heard sporadic material from the guy (much of which also paired up with Laswell) there’s no way I can back that claim up.

As for Dub Chamber 3, it’s not a terrible release, as all the musicians present are highly skilled at their craft. Unfortunately, if you don’t fancy the jazz side of downtempo dub jams, this album has little that might win you over. In the end, it’s just another drop in the endless sea of Laswellian downtempo dub-jazz jams.

Bob Marley - Dreams Of Freedom: Ambient Translations Of Bob Marley In Dub

Axiom: 1997

Dreams Of Freedom was something of a stoner’s classic back at the turn of the century, many a pothead owning a burned CD containing tracks from this release cobbled from P2P search inquiries. Heck, I was such an individual, using AudioGalaxy to find more Bill Laswell and ‘ambient dub’ musics, only to discover tunes off here high in search results. It really is a can’t-miss idea: Bob Marley, dub remixes, and ambient textures; the prefect late-night, crash-and-spark album for ganja smokers.

This isn’t just a generic remix album either; rather, it’s a concept album, using classic Marley songs to create a journey of sorts. It helps that the driving force behind everything is Bill Laswell, thus maintaining a consistent tone throughout. There are a couple guest collaborations with Tetsu Inoue, but by and large, it’s Laswell’s show. And yes, his discography is incredibly hit-or-miss, but much of his Axiom output was class, and Dreams Of Freedom's no exception. He treats the source material with enough respect to let it shine through, while his deviations enhance the calming atmosphere.

The best way I can describe Dreams Of Freedom is “Marley In Space”, as Laswell makes ample use of his outworldly pads between the songs. Each segues into the next, as though drifting through alien landscapes before settling at a stage where another Marley song is being performed. Sitting nearby with his bass is Laswell, jamming away between the choruses as dub rhythms dance about. Come for the memorable melodies, stay for the spliffed-out music sessions.

So this is a nice little album, but an elephant doth dwell in the room; or rather, a Mr. Bob Marley is missing from it. Yes, his face is on the cover, that’s his name on the title, and these are songs that he wrote, but aside from Midnight Ravers at the end, he only sparingly crops up during choruses, if at all. Of course, this is because Dreams Of Freedom is a dub album, of the traditional sense. Dig into the works of the genre’s founders, and you’ll find many dub releases were just instrumentals of reggae singles; in fact, the whole notion behind dub music was giving the music itself freedom to breathe between the spaces. This album doesn’t hide the concept, explicitly stating these are ‘ambient dub translations’ right in the title. If you know dub music, the lack of ol’ Bob shouldn’t come as a surprise. Still, I maintain it’s kinda deceiving having a photo of someone known for his singing barely show up in the album proper.

I cannot deny the 'dub translations' scene being at times tedious, producers seldom adding much of note to the originals. And to be fair, Dreams Of Freedom falls in this category too. Fans of vintage Marley won't find anything new, and Laswell's style's long been 'like it or leave it'. Still, this album executes as expertly as one can hope, given the players involved. If anything, it's a great sleepy-time CD.

Bill Laswell - Sacred System: Chapter One - Book Of Entrance (Original TC Review)

Reachout International: Cat. # RUSCD8225
Released 1996

Track List:
1. Babylon Ghost (6:00)
2. Dread Iternal (9:19)
3. Cyborg Assault (5:37)
4. Galactic Zone (9:31)
5. Sub Terrain (16:12)


(2010 Update:
I stand corrected. Bill Laswell did have a major hit, as he co-wrote Herbie Hancock's Rockit. Oh, and when I refer to this release as 'minimal dub', I'm talking about traditional Jamaican dub played in a very minimal way, not minimal dub-techno. Really, you should know that -it's Laswell, after all.)


IN BRIEF: Blink, and it may be gone.

I love dub, really I do. The way it takes a standard sound and layers it over and over, creating these amazingly cavernous effects, is absolute bliss to a guy who tends to have headphones plastered to his ears most of the time. The resonance in the air of dub music has a way of sucking you in as you become lost drifting on the waves of sonic delights.

Ambient dub is often the more creative domain of dub music. With less attention paid to the immediate rhythms and melodies, producers use the sparseness of ambient music to toy around with resonance, admittedly sometimes with patience sapping, self-indulgent results.

One of the mainstays since the earliest days of this style is bassist Bill Laswell. Through dozens of collaborations and hundreds of releases, he may be one of the biggest names in electronic music you've never heard of, and for good reason. Because of his fairly loose approach to musicianship, he's never really had anything close to a hit in all this time. Much like jazz music, repeating melodies may come and go but are tinkered and toyed with as the song progresses. The idea of repeating the same melody in a traditional verse/chorus method is normally thrown completely out the window, allowing Laswell to feel his way through a song's duration and concluding it when he sees fit.

I came across Laswell via his Divination alias, a dark, minimal ambient side project that I quite liked. When I discovered he'd done a bunch of ambient dub as well, I eagerly began looking for some. Trouble is, because of his huge discography, I was stumped as to where to begin. Due to his ability to leap across musical genres almost at will, recommendations were all over the place. In the end, I did what was probably best anyways: take a gamble and grab whatever caught my eye. As a result, I'm here reviewing Sacred System: Chapter One - Book Of Entrance, the first in a series of dubby releases done for Reachout.

One thing I noticed right away is this is very bass driven music. While there is percussion and keyboards about, they are mostly there to complement Laswell's playing. As a result, I can see a potential audience being quite limited.

This isn't meant as a knock on bass players in general, but fact of the matter is not many people can get into this form of music. A bass guitar's frequency range is so low that, even if you have adequate speakers to do it justice, the human ear is far more responsive to higher range notes when they are played. This is why bass is almost always relegated to accompanying the rhythm or harmonizing with the melody to give it added tonal depth. You have to really pay attention when the bass is carrying the musical weight of a song, as things as simple as a single piano key easily stick out from many of the low tones.

That all said, does Sacred System have enough chops to keep an acute listener paying attention? It's a mixed bag, I have to say.

Opening track Babylon Ghost starts out with some bubbly sound effects (alright, it’s a bong. Don’t ask me how I know) setting up a light-hearted tone. The rhythm and Laswell's bass playing is quite bouncy and repetitive throughout, allowing all of the dubby effects to spice things as the song moves along. No two bars sound identical, but unless you're paying attention to such slight details like a stutter echo or delay effect, you probably won't notice much variation throughout. At points a couple piano chords with a lot of echo and delay effects join, creating an almost strumming sound, but the chords played are mostly the same as well, relying on dub tricks for diversity.

These techniques are played out in the next two tracks as well, offering different styles to utilize them in. As the name suggests, Dread Iternal is slower and darker, making use of sparse percussion and spacey pads that Laswell uses quite nicely. However, the bass does most of the work here, and with an over-nine minute duration, it can be a bit of a tedious excursion. Cyborg Assault is much quicker, leaping into jungle's territory as Laswell's speedy bass tears along. Even the strumming pianos, while sounding a bit muted due to the very brief echo effects, get a chance to play with more than just the two basic chords at times. In fact, Cyborg Assault may just be the most accessible track to casual listeners on here, provided they don't mind speedy rhythms.

Galactic Zone moves into different territory from the previous three. While a slower track like Dread Iternal, it doesn't fall into the repetitive, noodly style the former did. As a clumpity-clump-clump rhythm plays out with plenty of dub tricks, a gentle keyboard serenely moves throughout, improvising along the way to never fall into repetitive staleness the way the pianos did. Laswell's bass playing complements the keyboard nicely, alternating turns at carrying the song for its nine-plus duration.

And, before you know it, we're already at the last track on this release. Wait a moment! How did that happen? I could have sworn I just put this thing on. Sure, this isn't a long album in general (forty-six minutes total) but even old rock albums of shorter length don't go by this quickly. I suppose because the songs sound so similar, it almost feels like you are listening to just one big song, with brief pauses to change the tempo. Is this a good thing? I don't know, but despite the pleasantness of what's been played, I still kind of feel I'm not getting my money's worth if half an hour of music can pass me by without noticing much (and this is when I'm actually paying attention to the bass leads; I'd imagine most other folks wouldn't even notice that).

Speaking of one long song, the last one here, Sub Terrain, inconspicuously breaches the sixteen minute mark. Much like everything else on here, the pleasant keyboard tones, caa-lumpity clump rhythm, benign pads, and groovy bass are nice to listen to as they are playing, but they don't grab your attention for long either as the structureless approach to them has a tendency to let your mind wander. I'll be listening to it, go do something else for a couple minutes, and come back without feeling like I missed anything important. Fortunately, the sounds and melodies are catchy enough to keep Sub Terrain from crossing into dreaded muzak territory, but only just.

So, yeah, I guess this is a nice little album to throw on and sit back to. If you pay attention diligently to the subtle little production tricks, there's some interest to be had. However, knowing the attention span of most folks these days, I can't see them getting into Sacred System all that much. Perhaps it's their loss but minimal dub of this sort does tend to appeal to only a small portion of the EDM community.


Score: 6/10

ACE TRACKS:
Galactic Zone


Written by Sykonee. Originally published 2005 for TranceCritic.com.