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Bill Laswell

finelikewinefinelikewine "ONCE UPON A TIME, I HAD A VINYL." http://www.discogs.com/user/permabulker 1,416 Posts
edited September 2015 in Strut Central
Can anyone school me on Bill Laswell? Anything by this dude I've heard so far was outstanding. What are the essentials?

Just came across this gem:



  Comments

  • phatmoneysackphatmoneysack Melbourne 1,124 Posts
    My knowledge of him is not that extensive, but I know he makes great songs. If I see his name on a record, I know I am in for some top 80s experimental dance, punkfunk, afro, dub or jazz. His 90s catalog is pretty heavy too, but I wouldn't know where to start with it.

    My favorites are:














  • trzakhstantrzakhstan IA 198 Posts
    yeah, he only made nine albums in a year for a while.
  • meistromocomeistromoco 953 Posts
    [guilty pleasure]I know it is a little (or a lot) Ras Trent, but I always dug his Bob Marley dub LP[/guilty pleasure].



  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    ^^^^Yeah, weird to think Whitney Houston's first recording was a Soft Machine cover.

    One of my favorite things he did was a dub of this album, pretty unique, imo. I've recommended this to several people to play in their bar/restaurant and it's always gone over well:

  • finelikewinefinelikewine "ONCE UPON A TIME, I HAD A VINYL." http://www.discogs.com/user/permabulker 1,416 Posts
    that guy was really diligent...
    Some of the best things I dicovered so far:








    So much more good stuff around. Dude is a bit of a genius. I like even a lot of his ambient work.

    Those who think Nunjabes is not complex enough, should definetly check out Bill Laswell body of work from the 90s.
  • fishmongerfunkfishmongerfunk 4,154 Posts
    the issue I have with bill laswell is that his quality control is suspect. most that axiom stuff with dream line-ups is basically unlistenable. i liked those dub versions he did of miles and bob marley but i have no desire to hear them again. he comes up with great concepts but the execution is often missing. i think this one is kind of a standout:



    as a bass player he is fairly impressive. i saw him play with zorn and some death metal drummer years ago (and a totally befuddled and outclassed a-track on turntables) and he really stole the show with his aggressive and fast runs.
  • disco_chedisco_che 1,115 Posts
    In my early digging days I had many encounters with 80s albums that had Laswells name on them and finally decided, that they stood for everything I hated about what I believed was "80ies jazz music". I also bought the Jungle Brothers album he produced and thought it was the crappiest thing they've ever done.
    I've never even thought about the man within the last 15 years and was curious, if my perception of his work has changed (like it did with most of the 80ies/early 90ies sound aesthetics), now that you brought the name up... but not a bit. Those stiff drum patterns...brrrr. Guess I'll never make friends with any of his music.

  • m_dejeanm_dejean Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut. 2,946 Posts
    If faux_rillz was still here this thread would be full of Ricky Vincent "funkster" jokes.



    Yeeeeow!

    I like "Baselines".





  • Francois Von Pierre ParkerFrancois Von Pierre Parker 56 Posts
    That Uprising track is nice.
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