Bill Laswell . does he got an album I can listen to all the way through??

This strikes me as hilariously accurate.

hey this record with Milford Graves (The Stone) is pretty cool!

For those that rip on his bass playing, "This is the Picture(Excellent Birds)" by Gabriel/Anderson is pretty awesome. At the time I liked his playing on the trip-hoppy '90s Material albums, too. Pure, This is How it Feels ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dw19PW8RzE

Shit, I mean the Golden Palominos. Same diff.

The new one, Against Empire, just blew me away. I haven't listened to his work much over the past 20 years or so.

His Bandcamp page is impressive.

lol wow i thought my bandcamp was ridiculous. now i feel better. thanks bill laswell!

Bill Laswell: bass, effects
Pharoah Sanders: saxophone
Peter Apfelbaum: saxophone, flute, keyboards
Herbie Hancock: electric piano
Jerry Marotta: drums
Chad Smith: drums
Hideo Yamaki: drums
Satoyasu Shomura: drums
Adam Rudolph: percussion

... huh

now THAT sounds like a funky record !!

Only one drummer per track, though.

Bought a bunch of his stuff off Bandcamp last night: all five volumes of the Sacred System dub series (different personnel and moods on each one, so I'm not sure what's supposed to tie them together) and the two Automaton releases — Dub Terror Exhaust, mentioned way upthread, has more bass than anything I've ever heard in my life. I feel like if I had a subwoofer it would bounce things off shelves in my apartment. The second Automaton disc, Jihad, is more ambient — two 25-minute tracks with lots of violin and percussion and sound effects.

I also noticed that if you become a subscriber for $22 a month he gives you a shit-ton of exclusives, among them two never-officially-released Last Exit shows. One is the widely bootlegged Moers Festival performance where they were joined by Diamanda Gálas and Billy Bang, and the other is from Allentown, PA; all the tracks are untitled, and I think some of it may have wound up on Cassette Recordings '87. I might join for one month, download those, and cancel...

Good plan. Some of the mighty bandcamp stash is under his name, a bunch more is here: https://modtechnologies.bandcamp.com/music (both with that same stupid picture of him)

I signed up for the Bandcamp subscription and have so far downloaded the two Last Exit shows, plus a live gig from 2018 with Ravi Coltrane on sax and Hideo Yamaki on drums. The Allentown gig is phenomenal so far, not all wall-to-wall blare at all, some surprisingly tender moments from Brötzmann. Plus, when I went looking for more information on it, I turned up this interview with Sharrock and Jackson from a local paper, previewing the gig! A really good little piece; I haven't come across many interviews with either man over the years.

Yeah, might have to sign up and get that--and this: https://billlaswell.bandcamp.com/track/the-sprawl And this collection of early Material---no credits, but hopefully w Sharrock: https://billlaswell.bandcamp.com/album/access-beginnings And somewhere in there is a live Material set I hadn't seen before,that does incl. Sharrock (maybe rec. in New Jersey?)

Dammit, I give up--please link the Last Exit Allentown, unperson---I see all their others (except the one w Galas and Bang, but I've got the bootleg of that)

Here's the link to Allentown:

https://billlaswell.bandcamp.com/album/allentown

And here's an early Material set (1981) with Derek Bailey, Sonny Sharrock, Fred Frith, John Zorn, and Charles Noyes:

https://billlaswell.bandcamp.com/album/the-kitchen-nyc

Great, thanks! I forgot about the page where he shows you alll the stuff you get by subscribing, incl. exclusives. Looks like Montreux 1983 was the Sharrock-era Material I was thinking of. Looks like the one w Bailey etc is what I already have as legit download, released ca. 2007(if not, it's the same line-up and year)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8qex2ODYnM

So is everything he released on Axiom on the Bandcamp site? I just noticed that some Axiom stuff is on Spotify, but not all of it. Was yearning to hear Ritual Beating System, but it looks like I have to find my copy.

This one! https://billlaswell.bandcamp.com/album/ritual-beating-system

Meant that w a question mark, but it's the only RBS I know of.

Yeah, that one. I know I have a digital copy of it to listen to, but I was hoping I could just stream it on Spotify. But it's not in there. (Still, another fave from that era, Material's Third Power, is!)

his first album baselines is sick af!

Just got another subscriber exclusive: a 2002 concert as Material featuring Pharoah Sanders, Amina Claudine Myers, Hamid Drake, violinist Lili Haydn, and percussionists Karsh Kale and Aiyb Dieng. Might be good, might be sleepy "world fusion" kludge, but with that lineup I'm gonna at least give it a shot.

https://billlaswell.bandcamp.com/album/frankfurt

I #actually like Gigi's "illuminated audio" which i believe is a laswell vibe

Yeah, he produced it (and they were married at the time; I believe they have a kid together, but I could be wrong about that).

I like this darkish ambient album he did with tetsu inoue on FAX: https://www.discogs.com/Cymatic-Scan-Cymatic-Scan/release/134772

The latest subscriber exclusive on Bandcamp is a Praxis show from the Knitting Factory in NYC that featured a shit-ton of guest vocalists: Antipop Consortium, Nature Boy Jim Kelly (a pseudonym for one of the dudes from New Kingdom), Sussan Deyhim, Liu Sola, and to introduce the show, Rammellzee. I was there; he came onstage in full junkyard samurai/gundam armor. It was amazing.

Rammellzee. I was there; he came onstage in full junkyard samurai/gundam armor. It was amazing.

as in like the cover for his album !?

https://www.discogs.com/Rammellzee-Bi-Conicals-Of-The-Rammellzee/release/247455

Yeah, it was something like this one. Unbelievable to see in person.

https://superradnow.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/rammellzee.jpg

well i never.
i had always assumed the cover of that album was a (toy) model type of thing.
guess not.
need to dig out the album again.
did not get into it when i first heard it, then gave it a few spins last year, and really really enjoyed it.
think once i realised it was an noice/beats/experimental album as opposed to straight up hip hop (which i expected when i picked it up), then the whole vibe of it hit home a lot more.

Noteworthy, and sad to see

https://www.gofundme.com/f/emergency-please-help-bill-laswell

The good news is that he is just about at his goal, and after just 2 days.

Jeebus. Well, if there was any doubt the dude put every penny he ever made back into making and recording music for and with others ...

Thought someone would mention Hashisheen: The End of Law

Lots of familiar names on the list of donors.

A really interesting subscriber-only release just went up: an hour-long rehearsal recording from 1997 with Derek Bailey on guitar, Laswell on bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums, and DJ Disk on turntables. They played at some festival in Frankfurt, and this is from the day before, or something.

Most recent "guy can't catch a break" update:

We hope you have started the new year full of joy and happiness. Thank you for supporting Bill Laswell. He is sending his regards to you for 2023.

Bill was hospitalized in December 2022 with a severe blood infection on top of what he's already been dealing with (diabetes and high blood pressure). This infection caused his heart to malfunction. After 3 rounds of electric shocks to set the heartbeat correct, he was rushed to the emergency room and was admitted to the ICU for an extended period of time. We were told that if we hadn't called 911, he likely would have died. Bill doesn't remember any of it. He is now out of the hospital, his infection is cured... however he still has to be monitored and periodically examined. He started working again a couple of days ago while trying to recover at the same time.

Bill had lost some recording projects due to hospitalization and has again fallen behind on the studio rent. He would need to come up with a couple of month's rent as soon as possible in order to avoid an eviction process starting. At this moment, he really needs to keep the studio for work on some more recordings. Bill feels very bad asking again but really needs your help. Thank you very much for being there for him.

Credit the GoFundMe with regular updates, but man, it's been nothing but bad news since the original ask.

Bill is back in the hospital from the rehab. They needed to check his wounds. He is still on antibiotics, it has to be continued for a couple of weeks. Also, his wounds are still in healing process. He still needs wound vac. The hospital is trying to get the home care service for him, it's been taking time. Till they could fix that, he has to stay at the hospital. We weren't expected Bill's hospitalization would go long time like this. He would not be able to work yet and it is hitting him a lot. One thing we were told, was that he is getting better. He is tired and depressed being in the bed, but always talking about how he is grateful about your donation. wanted to send big thank you to all of you for supporting him and being there for him.

More bad news since the first GoFundMe. Sounds like he's going to lose his studio, and his recovery remains slow at best, costing him work...

More bad news since the first GoFundMe. Sounds like he's going to lose his studio, and his recovery remains slow at best, costing him work...

had no idea he was in these straits, has there been any further updates?

I just picked up Hear no Evil on vinyl for $4; been a while since I listened to this (I used to love the CD)

The introductory essay for my Stereogum column this month is gonna be all about Last Exit, since he's put up, no joke, six complete concerts by that group for his Bandcamp subscribers (of which I am one).

I contributed to his Gofundme so I get updates every couple months. He seems to be in bad shape, yes.

but it's certainly possible he didn't have much in the way of points/publishing on the big albums

i think that this is a massive factor.
i was under the impression that blackwell funded all the axiom supergroup chaos as a tax write off, but maybe not.

xpost.

I just assumed he was one of those eccentric Full Artist types that didn't save money, just rolled it into future projects. He also iirc still owns his studio, which is probably worth something, but the GoFundMes of recent past indicated they really didn't want to resort to that, his livelihood.