Method of Defiance - The Only Way To Go Is Down (2006)

1 Internal Revolt 5:34 

2 Holiday In Guantanamo 5:54 

3 Let Your Body Take Control

Producer Guy Licata 6:11

4 Resculpted Flesh

Producer Kondo 5:21

5 The Only Way To Go Is Down

Producer Guy Licata 7:39

6 The Unfathomable Depths Where Dreams Lie

Producer Kondo 6:14

7 Torture Photos

Producer Guy Licata 6:45

8 Unforgiven 5:28 

9 Real Recognise Real

Producer Enduser 5:34

FLAC

________________________

ßill La∫w€ll P®€∫€N†∫

†øKyø ®ø†å†IøN

Pharoah Sanders - Save Our Children (1998)

There are producers who mold and shape recording sessions around the skills of the featured artist or bands. And there are producers who bring an artist onto their own landscape and mold that featured artist to their (the producers') own whims. Bill Laswell is among the latter, generally engaging a rotating cast of regular collaborators, including funk keyboard man Bernie Worrell, and the usual squad of eastern percussionists, which in this case includes the distinguished East Indians Zakir Hussain and Trilok Gurtu.

The danger in this approach is that the personality of the nominal leader of the recording date, in this case Pharoah Sanders, is often lost in the producer's vision. Such is the case with this date. From the opening bars it's clear this is more about Bill Laswell's vision than Pharoah Sanders. Isn't that kinda like the child is father to the man? Pharoah is credited with tenor and soprano saxes, double reed (which one?), percussion and voice; so I gather the title track opener confines his contributions to voice? If this track were all one were to hear, one would be hard-pressed to identify this as a Pharoah Sanders date. And with a saxophonist as distinguished of voice as Sanders, this just won't do. "Midnight in Berkeley Square," a re-working of "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," finally introduces the tenor many have come to know and love, buoyed by Alex Blake's incessant strummed bass, but even then he is awash in trappings. If you could ever imagine Pharoah Sanders on smooth jazz radio, this might be the track. Come back Pharoah, and leave Laswell to lesser lights.(jazztimes)

FLAC

Shin Terai - Unison (2001)

Bernie Worrell sets up the Shin Terai experience with a welcoming organ piece "Clue." Next the positive vibe of the record is established with "Dinner of Heaven." Bill Laswell's bass is happy and Nicky Skopelitis' rhythm guitar and sitar is nothing but a good time. 4 minutes into the song, Buckethead enters and he really pushes the song into pleasantry. In "Emotional Intelligence" the band bonds to take you to a higher level of listening pleasure. Every note, beat propels the song forward. Shin Terai's beats, loops and programming lets Laswell, Skopelitis and Buckethead shine.

"Dusk" gets down with a nasty beat and Skopelitis hypnotic rhythm guitar. Damn, Laswell can groove the hell out of that bass. The soft guitar touches by Skopelitis and Buckethead are pure magic. Just when you thought you were safe from the groove, the band lays it on you again with the next song "Tag of War." Huge, deep foundation will pull you down into its core. Shin Terai's beat and Laswell's effects are staggering. The little funky sounds infect the song with musical pixie dust. Buckethead's lead guitar is out of this world. The keys at the end of the song are awesome.

Skopelitis rhythm in "Dream Catcher" mesmerizes me and then Bucket slices his electric guitar in like a machete. Worrell's organ synthesizer or clavinet makes some unusual pretty sounds in this track. Four and a half minutes in Buckethead blasts off into the heavens with astonishing lead playing. "From Texas" is funky, with Worrell's organ dominating the sound. (fearsmag)

TRACKLIST

1 Clue 1:59 

2 Dinner Of Heaven 7:46 

3 Emotional Intelligence 7:25 

4 Dusk 7:18 

5 Tug Of War 8:15 

6 Dream Catcher 7:52 

7 From Texas 8:10

FLAC

Bill Laswell - Lo.Def Pressure (2000)

Lo. Def Pressure consists of two extended compositions (both over 20 minutes) from genre-expanding musician/composer/producer Bill Laswell. Featuring a group of percussionists (including the exceptional tabla player Zakir Hussain) and sound generators, the results are texture-heavy excursions into rhythm that combine ancient musical traditions with modern beat science. It's a meeting of old and new, East and West that has taken place on Laswell's recordings ever since talking drums and tablas met drifting new age ambience on 1988's Hear No Evil. With Lo. Def Pressure, however, he has proven that the same preoccupations can make for captivating music over two decades into his career. "Shyvamythscience" (the composition that forms the first half of the album) begins with the sound of Hussain's busy tabla bubbling up from the music's dark, amorphous waters. Laswell and company proceed through a series of bass heavy, restless rhythmic backings, broken by interludes of morphing tabla and interplanetary drift. The song ends, retreating into the same black sea from which it emerged. On "Black Ice," skittish techno beats lock in with chattering percussion for shape-shifting, syncopated rhythms that dance across the dense, fluctuating textures. The muscle of the album (and its cold heartbeat) is Laswell's bottomless bass. Improvising within a limited range, it acts as a stark, heavy anchor for these icy, deep space explorations. Lo. Def Pressure assimilates elements of dub, techno, hip-hop, and Eastern traditions into a mix that defies any of these categories. (allmusic)

TRACKLIST

Shyvamythscience 23:36 

Black Ice 24:37

• Bass, Keyboards, Electronics [Beats], Composed By [Created By] – Bill Laswell
• Engineer – Robert Musso
• Mastered By – Michael Fossenkemper
• Percussion [Tabla Matrix, Rhythm Elements] – Badal Roy, Zakir Hussain
• Performer [Additional Music, Elements And Sounds] – Arif Singh, Hassan Akber Ali, Kadri Sriram
• 
  

FLAC

Robert Musso - Innermedium (1999)

0001     Unknown Passage 6:51
0002     Luminous 5:20
0003     Stream Of Stars 6:08
0004     Realm Of Spells 6:15
0005     Drifting Shades 5:25
0006     One Mind 5:44
0007     Dark Halo 7:10
0008     From Shadows 5:50
0009     Silent Code 6:10

FLAC