BILL LASWELL VS. SUBMERGED

BRUTAL CALLING (2x12" version)

  1/  Mass Graves                                (Gluck,Laswell)               5.55
  2/  Tunnel 110                                 (Gluck,Laswell)               7.18
  3/  Not Tomorrow or Never                      (Gluck,Laswell)               6.28
  4/  Decapitation Strike                        (Gluck,Laswell)               6.28
  5/  Lockdown on Bridges and Tunnels            (Gluck,Laswell)               5.39
  6/  110                                        (Gluck,Laswell)               6.10

          Recorded at Died and Went to Hell Studios and Orange Music, West Orange
            New Jersey
          Mix Translation by Bill Laswell at Orange Music
          Engineer: Robert Musso
          Assistant: James Dellatacoma
          Produced by Submerged and Bill Laswell
          Mastered by Michael Fossenkemper at Turtle Tone Studio, NYC
          Assistant: Alex Theoret
          Coordination: Robert Soares
          Art + Design: john brown @ cloud chamber
          KARLRECORDS would like to thank: Roland, Stefan/Broken Silence, Carola,
            Harry, Stefan/Colour Haze
Kurt Gluck: beats, sounds; Bill Laswell: bass, sounds.

          2006 - Karl Records (Germany), Karl 01 (2x12")

REVIEWS :

New cover and new label for what I’ve read it’s a reissue of the mighty Laswell vs Submerged originally released in 2004 by Japanese Avant label exclusively for Japan. Should I introduce Bill Laswell? Should I tell he he’s played with everybody, he’s produced everybody, he’s one of the main responsible for the fact dub got fashionable again back in the days and for having done almost everything? Should I mention he’s one of those two, three musicians together with Zorn (executive producer of this release with engeneer Robert Musso) and Frith who’s discography is so vast it’s almost impossible to make a reliable list? I’ll just say he played in three of my all time favorite bands: Painkiller, P.I.L., Ashes. Here we go with a breakcore, drum’n bass rhythmical release where you’ve that characteristical Laswell bass/touch you recognize in a split second married with Submerged "in yer face" drums. While this rhythmical approach is going trendy again thanks to a whole wave of new breed of Laswell/Harris-sons like Bong-Ra, Venetian Snares and so on, some will surely recognize something you may have heard before in many of the "fast" rhythmical release by New York based producer be it on Axiom or or on other labels. I dunno that much Submerged but I see his beat-approach gets along really well with this long-respected producer/musician, it’s music you can move your feet to it’s aggressive but being this bass-heroe a soulful white man with a foot in black music, he didn’t limit himself to dance till you drop music without heart and here and there you’ve some visceral sounds and melodies. Visceral, yes... I think that’s the proper adjective for many releases signed by "uncle Bill" (just to quote mighty Burroughs, I’m sure both Laswell and Submerged would appreciate), you always have that nocturnal feel plus a strong narcotic post-dub flavor flowing underneath like in the closing killer track. Thought being one of those who prefer the american producer in his more relaxed, slowed down, ambiental salsa (just to contradict my Painkiller infatuation) the release has its say above all if you’re into the most elegant breakcore materials or into many of the releases on Ohm resistance.

Andrea Ferraris (courtesy of the Chainlink D.L.K. website)

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Breakcore meets bass in this ‘versus’ ‘tween Bill Laswell and Submerged. Laswell, long-respected producer and bassist takes on the breakcore rhythms of Submerged. It is a tense furore that brims with anxiety and a raw jarring collaborative effect.

Patterned as a reaction in 2004 to the terrorist attack of 9/11, this reissue album on vinyl captures a fury and energy that is dark and scattered. Disruptive drums clatter the skull like falling steel, fractured and twisted chunks cloister the speakers with geometric innards spilled. The bass of Laswell is a significant inclusion, bulbous and organic, consummating with the contours of destruction the bowel-loosing horror of the event. Encrusted with blood and immersed in swift oblivion each track strikes like an airline into a tower and there is little one can do to bear witness even after repeated listens as the music as an event usurps all sense. One of the hardest hitting is Decapitation Strike with its pummelling bass and drum precisely punching together with scratched and reversed inlets into inferno. Deeper and deeper into the six tracks, the chaos grows, the aftermath worse than the impact in its maelstrom.

The collaborative effort is a puissant one, hard to delineate ‘tween the forging as so comprehensive is their delivery of hard-hitting rhythm and gut-writhing melody. That a bassist shares duties with such an electronic demagogue makes for a more respected output than simply laying down some virtual instrument to the skitter-scatter of rhythm. Couple that with the dark response to such an event it’s a worthwhile session for them and us.

Originally released on Avant-jazz guru, John Zorn’s AVANT label in Japan only, this full length vinyl only of one-thousand copies is slicked with aesthetics. The cover is black, spilled with an embossed oil slick – or perhaps more fitting given its 9/11 reaction: blood. It glistens. The insert inside is a full colour wraparound of dark skies occluded in heavy clouds.

symbolique (courtesy of Heathen Harvest website)