SHIN TERAI

UNISON

  1/  Clue                                       (Terai)                       1.59
  2/  Dinner of Heaven                           (Terai,Laswell,Skopelitis)    7.46
  3/  Emotional Intelligence                     (Terai,Laswell,Skopelitis)    7.25
  4/  Dusk                                       (Terai,Laswell,Buckethead)    7.18
  5/  Tug of War                                 (Terai,Laswell,Buckethead)    8.15
  6/  Dream Catcher                              (Terai,Laswell,Worrell,Musso) 7.52
  7/  From Texas                                 (Terai,Laswell,Worrell,Musso) 8.10

          Recorded at Greenpoint Studio, Brooklyn, New York
          Produced by Bill Laswell and Shin Terai
          Engineered by Robert Musso
          Studio Assistance: Diabel Faye
          Mix Translation: Bill Laswell
          Mixing engineers: Robert Musso and Oz Fritz
          Mastered by Michael Fossenkemper at Turtle Tone Studio, NYC
Shin Terai: voice, synthesizer, beats, loops, effects; Bill Laswell: basses, synthesizer, effects; Buckethead: guitars; Bernie Worrell: Hammond B-3 organ, synthesizer, clavinet; Nicky Skopelitis: six and twelve-string guitars, coral electric sitar; Robert Musso: loops, programming, processing.

          1999 - Absord Music (Japan), ABCJ-60 (CD)
          2001 - ION Records (USA), IN 2015-2 (CD)

REVIEWS :

Percussionist Shin Terai is the titular leader here, but you'd never guess it: most of the drums sound looped, and the sound is Bill Laswell's standard layers of dull ambient sheen with occasional jagged licks poking through. The tracks are better designed than most of his productions, though, and there's no cute concept to get in the way. As background music it's effective, intermittently arresting, but there's enough going on to keep you entertained if you're really paying attention. Worrell's keyboards are prominent ("From Texas"), from organ swells and accents to clavinet grooves, and Buckethead adapts perfectly to each mood, whether chord washes, raining arpeggios or fist-raising solos ("Dream Catcher," the one track that rocks out in places) are required. (Skopelitis also adds guitars.) Curiously for a bassist, Laswell often has trouble with the bottom end, here getting stuck in stale funk vamps ("Tug Of War") - it's still the best of his mellow records I've heard to date.

3 of 5 stars

courtesy of the Warr.org website