DUBADELIC

BASS INVADERS

  1/  Prelude To Madness                         (Laswell,Parsons,Fernando)    6.22
  2/  Reignited                                  (Fernando,Harding)            8.24
  3/  Thuds Like Scuds                           (Fernando,Harding)            6.03
  4/  MIB                                        (Parsons,Fernando)            3.13
  5/  Sirius Bass                                (Israel,Martine,Fernando,B&D) 5.22
  6/  Ooze In Dub                                (Megabyte,Splice)             5:50
  7/  Sailin' On                                 (Martine,Scharin,Fernando)    5.24
  8/  High                                       (Fernando)                    7.04
  9/  ????                                                                     ????
  10/ Secrets of the Lost Dubplates              (Laswell,Parsons,Fernando)    6.29

          Tracks 1,4 and 9 recorded and mixed at Orange Studios, West Orange,
            New Jersey
          Tracks 2 and 3 recorded and mixed at Hard Wood Labs, Crooklyn
          Tracks 5 and 6 recorded and mixed at Bass Mind, Crooklyn
          Track 7 recorded and mixed at the Other Side, Crooklyn and Blossom Labs,
            Seattle, WA
          Track 8 recorded and mixed at the Other Side, Crooklyn
          Visualized by The Eye

Colonel Bill Laswell: bass; Splice: space; Steady Ted Parsons: sticks; Spectre: bones; Megabyte: bits; Corporal Blossom: noiz; Dr. Israel: roots; Scotty Hard: rock; The Eye: smoke; Trixi (6): vox; Lori Carson (7): vox.

          1998 - WordSound (USA), ESLP027) (2x12")
          1998 - WordSound (USA), WSCD027 (CD)

REVIEWS :

Bill Laswell and a load of friends kick out some spacey dub, thick in the groove and thicker in the bass. Drop in lots of kicky samples and general madness ensues.

Oh, my, but these songs take their time. A gorgeous, languid feel pervades the songs. No hurry to get anywhere, no worries at all. Just some beautiful, low down funk.

Yeah, and you gotta love the space invaders concept (from artwork to the sampled subjects). Goofy and entrancing. A real dirty, fried chicken sound from the production. Lots of crackles and pops, a lot of everything. Meandering in a cool stew.

Oh, yeah, this is on the edge of comprehension. But the sound is so deep, there's always something new to discover. Just trip along into the groove and see where your mind ends up.

Jon Worley (courtesy of the Aiding & Abetting website)

..................................................

Skiz Fernando's Brooklyn-based collective and label Wordsound goes from strength to strength, gradually becoming the obvious home of East Coast dub explorers. Bass Invaders is a follow-up to 2000: A Bass Odyssey, and once again brings together a whole bunch of Fernando's fellow-travellers for some serious fun. Bass Invaders' sleevenotes namecheck, among others, Sun Ra, George Clinton, Afrika Bambaataa and Bootsy Collins; the album appositely comes with a sci-fi short story in which the eponymous BI's arrive on a ravaged Earth to restore life to the planet through the power of "subharmonic vibrations". This time out, Skiz's cohorts include Bill Laswell, HIM, New Kingdom's Scott Harding, Spectre, the extraordinary toaster Dr Israel, Godflesh and former Swans-drummer Ted Parsons, Lori Carson, Corporal Blossom and Splice. It's appropriate that Laswell is one of the crew; the music here in many ways occupies the same space as much of Laswell's ambient dub collaborations like Divination. At the obscure meeting place of dub, psychedelia, metal, ambient and electronica, this could all so easily become a real mess. But Skiz brings everything together with considerable discipline, and the results are singularly engaging; fodder for the ears and the feet.

Simon (courtesy of the Motion website)