From: Efr?n del Valle<efrendv@yahoo.es> Subject: Tough work: Bill Laswell recommendations
I thought it would be good to ask you what you think are his ESSENTIAL albums, regardless of genre (dub, ambient, funk, whatever).
Efren, I don't listen to as much Laswell as I used to, partly because he's married now and has a kid and isn't producing as much as before and partly because he seems to have lost some of the edge he had in the early to late nineties, but the ones I still like a lot are the early Axiom catalogue, Last Exit, Hear No Evil, Equations of Eternity, most of the Divination and Automaton CDs, and the Asana CDs. His best ambient album is Rasa Serene Timeless Joy, a title he copped from Burroughs. I also liked his production work with the Tibetan monks which is called Somma. I still like the first couple of CDs he did with Pharaoh Sanders and his work with Foday Musa Suso. Laswell's production work was my first inroad into the Gnawa Musicians, Jajouka, and Samulnori. That stuff I still prize. I've enjoyed his Oscillations recordings (D & B), though many don't. And I think one of the best places to go for dub is his Axiom dub comp and the second and third Sacred System CDs (I don't care so much for the fourth or the first). Stuff to avoid includes Emerald Aether and the Operazone releases. His work with Eno on ambient 4 had a big effect on his production aesthetic, which is why many of his recordings sound so glossy at times. I still go back to his APC releases, including the dub recordings and his work with Cuban musicians on Havana Mood. Pretty much all of what you find on Filmtracks has already appeared on these other recordings, much of it in the Axiom catalogue that Polygram controls right now. The new Axiom releases are on Palm Pictures, Chris Blackwell's label now since he sold Island. The best on Palm is the Tabla Beat Science studio release with Zakir Hussein and Karsh Kale. About seven years ago, the main Laswell releases I was listening to were Hallucination Engine, Ekstasis (the first one--the second is very sugary), Anton Fier's Dreamspeed and Absence of Time, Golden Palomino's Dead Inside, Pharoah Sanders' Message From Home. Of these, the Anton Fier and the Palomino's are holding up best for me. Hope that helps a little.