PRAXIS

MOLD

  1/  Meldt                                      (Laswell)                     9.10
  2/  Narcoleprosy                               (Laswell)                     4.12
  3/  Electric Soil                              (Laswell)                     3.25
  4/  Sunshine                                   (Laswell)                     3.04
  5/  Babble Stream                              (Laswell)                     5.24
  6/  First Wish After Death                     (Laswell)                     1.37
  7/  Lichenous Shock                            (Laswell)                     6.52
  8/  Throes of Rasputin                         (Laswell)                     8.54
  9/  Sqlxzm                                     (Laswell)                     4.14
  10/ Septic Plague                              (Laswell)                     12.57
  11/ Viral Sonata #69                           (Laswell)                     8.05

          Recorded by Rob at Evergreen and Alex at Avatar
          Additional mix, edit, assembly by Peter Wetherbee at Voudoufunk, New
            York City
          Assistants: Anthony Ruotolo and Julian Joyce
          Mixed by Alex Haas and Peter Wetherbee
          Produced by Laswell/Haas/Wetherbee
          Composed by Bill Laswell
          Decomposed by Alex Haas
          Undertaker: Peter Wetherbee
          Mastered by Joe Lambert at Ground Zero
Bill Laswell: bass, cuts, scratches, scans; Alex Haas: treatments, keyboardsm process; David "DeadTech" Castellan: loops, textures, compost; Julian “MPC” Joyce: Dark Step Junglist; Pat Thrall: guitars; Anne Pollack: flutes; Charlotta Jansen: voice; Peter Wetherbee: drums, guitars, voice, synthesis, loops, beats, noise.

          1998 - Yikes! (USA), YIK CD 7775-2 (CD)

REVIEWS :

Although most of Bill Laswell's fans have been nearly overwhelmed by the this year's abundance of new releases and enticing Bob Marley/Miles Davis remix projects, there's a dissenting contingent (including a vote here) that finds his ambient/dubology work just as fascinating. His collaborations as Praxis have always been the most difficult to defend, since there is a colossal mass of DJs and remixers working in the same vein, yet Laswell and crew are able to discover new ways to disassemble and reconstruct these sound treatments while maintaining an abundance of grooves. Along with multi-instrumentalists/mixers Alex Haas and Peter Wetherbee, Laswell embarks on an illbient-bent journey into an abyss of netherworldish noise textures- with a low, growling bass, warlock-like chanting, and scratchology mind-fuggery- that sound as if they were drained repeatedly into the black hole and burped back 'atcha. Granted, some of Laswell's sidework with Axiom/SubRosa/BlackArc were just mildly interesting fusion sessions, but I've been living and working with this one for some time. Except for his explosive Last Exit work, this may be one of his more challenging collaborations.

Virginia Reed (courtesy of the Focus Magazine website)