It's difficult to think of a musician more prolific than Bill Laswell. Every year, this guy's name comes on the spine of three to seven albums, not to mention being buried in the credits of probably a dozen more. His brilliance isn't really up for debate-- the sheer consistency of his releases guarantees that-- but after a while, consistency can get a bit numbing. Laswell is excellent at what he does, but truly definitive statements, like the amazing Invisible Design, are rare in his catalogue; his best work is spread out over too many discs to count, instead of being concentrated in one place.
Bill Laswell / Sacred System - Ethiopia
This is where Laswell's project, the preposterously named Sacred System: Book of Exit; Dub Chamber 4, comes in. Over the years, Laswell has released a veritable pantsload of dub-themed releases, and this new one follows in the much the same vein: deep bass, slow tempos, cavernous echo, and a nebulous sense of composition. As dub releases goes, it's fairly minimal; while there aren't piles of freaky samples-- in fact, there's really no clutter at all to speak of-- it's nothing Laswell hasn't explored many times before.
The album's six tracks are split evenly between Laswell-composed tests of a dub autopilot machine he's apparently been working on, and three songs he wrote with Ethiopian singer Ejigayehu "GiGi" Shibabaw. While Laswell's chilled-out dub instrumentals aren't bad by any means, they don't hold a candle to the vocal tracks; I'm not sure what language GiGi is singing in when she leaves English behind (Ethiopia has six major languages-- the principle being Amharic-- and several more minor ones), but in the context of the music, it's beside the point, as her mellifluous delivery is ultimately what cuts through the dubby haze.
Beyond GiGi herself, there's a certain drive to the three tracks she sings on that seems missing from the others. Percussionists Karsh Kale and Aiyb Dieng are consummate craftsmen, but on the dub tracks they're limited to a small window, making it difficult for them to break things up with the virtuosity they're known for. They're given a freer hand on the vocal tunes, though, which invariably results in a much more palpable sense of urgency and fire.
Ultimately, it's most interesting to think of what could come of a full-scale collaboration between GiGi and Laswell: as it stands, half of this album is electrifying, the other merely passable. Under usual circumstances I might recommend this, but if you don't already own Laswell's essential releases like Psychonavigation, Invisible Design, or the various and excellent records by his other projects Praxis, Tabla Beat Science, Material, and Massacre, Sacred System can easily wait. If you're reasonably well versed in Bill's oeuvre, proceed as you wish, but know what to expect: Laswell dub by-the-numbers.
1/ Ethiopia - (Laswell,Shibabaw) (6:14)
2/ Lower Gound - (Laswell) 7.34
3/ Shashamani - (Laswell) 7.29
4/ Bati - (Laswell,Shibabaw) 7.47
5/ Land of Look Behind - (Laswell) 6.45
6/ Jerusalem - (Laswell,Shibabaw) 12.29
Bill Laswell - bass, guitar, keyboards
Ejigayehu "GiGi" Shibabaw - vocals
Karsh Kale - drums, tabla
Aiyb Dieng - percussion
REVIEWS :
One of the most prolific men in music, Bill Laswell doesn't release albums under his own name as often as he once did, which makes Book of Exit, the fourth in his "Dub Chamber" series, especially worthy of attention. While the previous "Dub Chamber" releases leaned more toward hard Jamaican-style dub music, with instruments dropping in and out and plenty of reverb and delay, this is altogether a different beat, in large part due to the vocals of Ethiopian singer Gigi. And what Laswell, Gigi, drummer/tabla player Karsh Kale, and percussionist Aiyb Dieng end up with is really ambient dub -- something lighter and more flowing because it adapts itself to the vocals. And Gigi is in excellent form, possibly better than on her own debut, whether on "Ethiopia" or the memorable, beautiful "Jerusalem," which mixes a slight R&B inflection with dub for something outstanding, beautiful, and ethereal. Laswell's light hand at the controls (even the disc's heaviest track, "The Lower Ground," is hardly the stuff of Lee "Scratch" Perry and King Tubby) works subtly -- shifts happen gradually, making for a sense of movement and focus about the pieces. And his work on guitar, bass, and keyboards is as accomplished as his colleagues. Slightly unearthly but always lovely, this dub chamber is a place worth exploring.
Chris Nickson (courtesy of the All Music Guide website)
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Mr. Bill Laswell, one of the world’s busiest producer/performers is at it again. This fellow’s got his fingers in so many diverse musical pies of his own and others (who’s baking he supervises) it’s dizzying – and therein lies the rub, bub. With all the stuff he puts out (under his own name or a nom de musique) - not even counting the myriad sessions he produces - Laswell may as well have his own Disc of the Month Club, the downside being all the output can’t all be good. But he’s thrown us a curve w/ his latest, and it’s a humdinger.
The latest in his Sacred System: Dub Chamber series, Book of Exit, is something of a radical departure from the others. They all feature dense, dark, jazz-, reggae- and Middle Eastern-inflected dub – similar approach here, but this ‘un lets a bit of light in. For one thing, it’s got a vocalist: the excellent Ethiopian singer “Gigi” Shibabaw, who has an entrancingly high, translucent, ethereal voice (a wee bit like Flora Purim), with strong Middle Eastern/North African overtones (though with a heart-rending touch of modal Irish-ness on the closer “Jerusalem”), though she does not overdo the melisma common to most Arabic singers. This stuff is as heavily rhythmic as before (re: the other fine discs on R.O.I.R.) and Laswell still uses the holy language of Dub to communicate, but it’s not as ominous and bass-heavy, more spacious and a little brighter. The instrumental sounds seem to gently, gracefully soar over (and occasionally down) yawning chasms. Laswell plays a few guitar lines encompassing shades of both West African guitar music and the late Jerry Garcia. You can actually listen to this one in the daylight, while the other volumes are definitely for night or darken rooms. (That’s not a put-down, btw.) This particular Book I’ve been able to sit through twice in one sitting, and there’s not many discs out there that have that power. Highly Recommended, this one is.
Mark Keresman (courtesy of the JazzReview.com website)
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Bill Laswell is one of those "everywhere-at-once" musicians—producing, engineering and playing bass on countless albums for other artists, as well as maintaining an absurdly prolific release schedule of his own music. This album is mysteriously billed as 'Dub Chamber 4,' and since I haven't heard the first three Dub Chambers, I'm questoning my qualifications to write this review. However, this album does bear quite a resemblance Laswell's 'RadioAxiom: A Dub Transmission' album, a collaboration with Jah Wobble released early last year. Like that album, 'Book of Exit' is a highly polished series of superlative ethnic music workouts, utilizing heavily percussive dub as a backbone. This strategy has worked for Laswell many times before, and it works here again. Three of the six tracks contain beautiful, serpentine vocals by Ethiopian singer GiGi, who also sang on 'RadioAxiom'. GiGi's seductively epic vocal style works wonderfully in this context, but as Laswell's music always floats dangerously close to New Age/Worldbeat territory, it's difficult for me to completely surrender to its beauty. There is something a little enraging about white westerners who shamelessly co-opt the music of other cultures and blend them into a super hi-fi pastiche that loses its meaning and context, and serves as stereo test fodder for thousands of yuppie bachelor pads. The only things that save Laswell's music from being relegated to this hall of shame are his incredible grasp of composition, subtlety, and his ear for rich, captivating production. It is this amazing ear that transforms the opening track "Ethiopia"—a combination of cleanly plucked acoustic guitar, tabla, multitracked voice and echo chamber—from an easy cliché into an alarmingly beautiful experience. Most of the album follows this same basic formula, until things get a little bone-shaking and mind-bending towards the end, with the one-two punch of "Shashamani" and "Land of Look Behind." The album concludes with the long-form heroic pop of "Jerusalem," an achingly lovely paean to an ancient holy land, rife with war and division. GiGi sings mostly in English this time, and her sad and timely refrain of "Jerusalem, Jerusalem/You are so undone/Oh, what have you done...?" leave no doubt of this album's worthiness.
courtesy of the Brainwashed website
