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266
Album Review

Praxis: Tennessee 2004

Read "Tennessee 2004" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


Praxis is the operative name of an experimental jazz/rock/funk/dub quartet led by bassist Bill Laswell with drummer Brain (Les Claypool's Primus), guitarist Buckethead and keyboardist Bernie Worrell (wizard of synthesized funk for P-Funk, Talking Head, etc...). They first came to Frankenstein-like life in 1993: because like that mad doctor, Laswell stitched Praxis together from disparate parts of the contemporary music corpse and then animated it into a sometimes powerful, and sometimes hideous, life-form.

In 2004, Praxis hit the ...

249
Album Review

James Chance & the Contortions: Soul Exorcism (Redux)

Read "Soul Exorcism (Redux)" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


Soul Exorcism (Redux) is just as much a document of a space and time as it is the triumphant reissue of the legendary live album by James Chance & the Contortions.

Chance & the Contortions (and his alter-ego-band, James White & the Blacks) were focused on probing the outer reaches of the late 1970's black and white musical fringes--Miles Davis' fractious funk-jazz experiments from one side, and obnoxiously loud and aggressive punk rock from the other--and with much ...

284
Album Review

Bill Laswell: Version 2 Version: A Dub Transmission

Read "Version 2 Version: A Dub Transmission" reviewed by John Kelman


Sometimes music is meant to engage the mind; other times it is meant purely to involve the body. Some would argue that the best music does both, and there may be some truth to that belief, but the reality is that there is room for both as distinct and separate entities. While much of Bill Laswell's work over the past thirty years has been of a more physical nature, there's no denying that a lot of thought and effort goes ...

144
Album Review

Dub Trio: Exploring the Dangers Of

Read "Exploring the Dangers Of" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


Dub is minimalist by definition: Reggae music deconstructed then rebuilt in deep echo and reverb (and, one suspects, plenty of thick, gummy smoke) to emphasize the hypnotic power of its repeating, resounding bass and drum.

Dub is almost always a creature of the studio by definition too. But Exploring the Dangers Of dub is played and recorded in mostly real-time by DP Holmes (guitar/keyboards/dubs), Stu Brooks (bass/keyboards/dubs), and Joe Tomino (drums/percussion/melodica/dubs) with minimal overdubs (mostly melodica, for the ...

225
Album Review

Bill Laswell: Version 2 Version: A Dub Transmission

Read "Version 2 Version: A Dub Transmission" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


Bassist, composer, and producer Laswell here reconvenes with several co-conspirators from previous dub and other world-beat projects: Keyboardist Bernie Worrell, drummer/percussionist Abdou Mboup, percussionist Karsh Kale (who served with Laswell in Tabla Beat Science and in the rhythm section for Herbie Hancock's acclaimed Future 2 Future set), and bassist Jah Wobble.

I get Laswell's dub, or at least I think I do. It's Miles Dewey Davis dub: No musical instrument, rhythm, style, or sound is out of bounds ...


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