BILL LASWELL
Dub Chamber 3 (ROIR)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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Bill Laswell, whose picture appears next to the word "prolific" in the dictionary, contributes what is apparently chapter three in the Sacred System series for ROIR Records. Why the words "Sacred System" don't appear anywhere in the title is anyone's guess. The CD is laid out in four tracks but is not an EP. We're talking about a full length CD with four distinct directions, though each takes you where you're going in a full trance.

Laswell, an excellent bassist, chose to work with Jah Wobble, another top shelf bassist, on "Cybertron," the second track. Curious. Throughout the project Laswell also worked with guitarist Nicky Skopelitis, pianist Craig Taborn, and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer. Molvaer is a wonder to hear and is reason enough to recommend this recording. His talent suggests he could play it straight in the world of jazz and do just fine, but his vision takes him into the world of electronic effects which he controls and does not let control him. The resulting sounds are by turns breathtakingly beautiful and shattering. Over the textures laid down by Skopelitis and Taborn, Molvaer handles an entire palette of colors usually divided up amongst several instruments in dub music, leaving only the bottom end for the more than capable Bill Laswell to cover.

By the end of Dub Chamber 3 you may well ask if the Sacred System feels complete. Who's to say part 3 was to be the final word? And who can honestly say what finishes a dub cycle outside of an audio equivalent of a fireworks grand finale? The final track, "A Screaming Comes Across The Sky," is relatively upbeat for dub, but there's no pulling out of all the stops. Just more outstanding, solid, mind-massaging dub from one of the few masters with no ties to Jamaica. And something more: a fulfillment of the long broken promises of new age without any of the banal trappings of that genre. This is dub, apparently from the Sacred System, and it's got me floating.

© 2001 - DJ Johnson