I interviewed him last year; we talked about Last Exit, Painkiller, some of his other industrial-metal-dub projects, the John Zorn/Fred Frith/Laswell/Dave Lombardo band, recording Pharoah Sanders in North Africa, and lots of other stuff. Here's a link.
― 誤訳侮辱, Tuesday, 14 February 2012 00:38 (twelve years ago) link
As a producer I think he's done some cool (and terrible!) stuff. As a player, much more hit or miss, but some of those hits hit hard, like Painkiller, Massacre, Last Exit and Peter Gabriel's "This is the Picture."
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 16 September 2017 19:52 (six years ago) link
I don't think his hit/miss ratio is bad at all. He's just done so fucking much. It's easy to point to a lot of good projects if you like the guy and easy to point at a lot of middling to poor stuff if you don't feel like being generous towards him.
― WilliamC, Saturday, 16 September 2017 20:07 (six years ago) link
ooh for an extended/remastered edition of rhythm killers.
it has to happen soon surely ?
― mark e, Saturday, 16 September 2017 20:33 (six years ago) link
I think some of his misses, like in my opinion the Miles Davis remixes or Bob Marley remixes, are so bad they really offset his frequent high points. At the time I really liked his sort of new age dub he was up to with the later golden palominos records, but I have a feeling they have not aged well.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 16 September 2017 21:22 (six years ago) link
I need to listen to Panthalassa (the Miles record) again. I listened to Divine Light (his remix of Carlos Santana's Love Devotion Surrender and Illuminations) recently and it's good; kind of an ambient reimagining of those records, but with enough guitar fireworks to keep it from dissolving into a puddle of sugar water.
― grawlix (unperson), Saturday, 16 September 2017 23:16 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hev2qx1y2IU
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 17 September 2017 01:03 (six years ago) link
Dude produced "Rockit" so...yes, there is a worse producer out there somewhere. Only know that b/c yesterday I heard a Sly and Robbie album from '85 that Laswell produced called Language Barrier that sounded so much like "Rockit" I had to look it all up. Album had a bunch of the same musicians on it as Future Shock (and Dylan somewhere on it, too, but didn't hear him on the song I heard.
― john. a resident of chicago., Monday, 18 September 2017 03:20 (six years ago) link
I remember being like downright angry after I bought Panthalassa, like I had literally been ripped off. I just listened to a bit of it and it didn't bother me as much as I remembered. Still not sure what it adds to the picture or why I wouldn't just listen to the miles records.
― the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually (man alive), Monday, 18 September 2017 03:31 (six years ago) link
I just bought three old Axiom releases from Laswell's Bandcamp page - Billy Bang's Outline No. 12 (conducted by Butch Morris), Henry Threadgill's Too Much Sugar for a Dime, and Maleem Mahmoud Ghania and Pharoah Sanders' The Trance of Seven Colors.
― grawlix (unperson), Monday, 18 September 2017 17:59 (six years ago) link
I like his Miles remix record
― Οὖτις, Monday, 18 September 2017 18:01 (six years ago) link
I do too.
― WilliamC, Monday, 18 September 2017 18:13 (six years ago) link
I haven't heard all that many Axiom records, and the hit/miss ratio is pretty terrible for what I've heard, but I remember being very captivated by the fold-out catalog that came with one of the cds I got in college. It felt like he was creating a world, throwing together with all these different genres, musicians I'd heard of, and mysterious titles and artwork. That was a bigger influence on me than the music, a lot of which is, like, bad trip-hop and funk jams.
― change display name (Jordan), Monday, 18 September 2017 18:14 (six years ago) link