Into The Groove (39)

Hello, Into the Groove, finishes the Laswell week with three expressions of his collision funk....Material, the avant-garde downtown ensemble organized around bassist him and keyboardist Michael Beinhorn was where Laswell first showed his talents....15 years later he played in and produced Praxis, combining metal and funk into a fusion that embodies his credo “Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted”... a year later he worked with a whole body of artists, again producing a clash between the P-funk of yesteryear and the artists that he worked with previously, in Praxis, Material and others , the result Funkcronomicon.

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Material - Temporary Music (1979-1981)    (flac 378mb)

One of the most high-profile projects of the endlessly prolific bassist and producer Bill Laswell, Material pioneered a groundbreaking fusion of jazz, funk, and punk that also incorporated elements of hip-hop and world music well before either's entrance into the mass cultural consciousness. Formed in 1979, the first Material lineup consisted of Laswell, multi-instrumentalist Michael Beinhorn, and drummer Fred Maher, all three staples of the downtown New York City underground music scene. After Material's debut LP under their own name, Temporary Music, the group's ranks swelled to include figures ranging from Sonny Sharrock to Henry Threadgill to Fred Frith, additions which yielded 1981's superb Memory Serves.

Their next album "One Down" marked a distinct shift in sound, the edgy experimentalism that characterized their earlier efforts is downplayed here in favor of funk and disco tunes delivered with less weirdness. Laswell is a master of funk bass, and with guests like drummer Yogi Horton, guitarist Nile Rodgers and singers Nona Hendryx and Whitney Houston (just before she became a superstar on her own), he didn't really have much chance to go wrong. Laswell finally reassembled the troops in 1989 to record the atmospheric Seven Souls, which spotlighted the spoken word performances of the legendary William S. Burroughs. 1991's The Third Power brought the group back to its soulful roots, with guests including Herbie Hancock, Sly & Robbie, Maceo Parker, and the Jungle Brothers; after 1994's Hallucination Engine, another four-year hiatus preceded the release of the remix collection The Road to the Western Lands. Intonarumori followed in 1999.

Temporary Music 1 (12") (1 - 4 recorded 23 to 25 July 1979) at Eddy Offord's Studio, Woodstock, New York.
Discourse / Slow Murder (7") (5 & 6 recorded March 1980).
Temporary Music Compilation (LP) ( 7 -10 recorded 25 & 26 September 1980) at Lindon Studio, Pennsylvania.
American Songs (12") ( 11 & 12 recorded 1981).



01 - O. A. O. (4:43)
02 - White Man (7:40)
03 - On Sadism (5:04)
04 - Process/ Motion (4:34)
05 - Discourse (4:05)
06 - Slow Murder (3:59)
07 - Secret Life (5:45)
08 - Reduction (5:30)
09 - Heritage (3:33)
10 - Dark Things (5:10)
11 - Detached (5:02)
12 - Ciquiri (6:22)

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Praxis - Metatron (94 ^ 248mb)

Praxis is the name of an ever-changing Bill Laswell musical project. Praxis combines elements of different musical genres such as funk, jazz, hip-hop and heavy metal into highly improvised music. First appearing in 1992 with the critically acclaimed Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis), Buckethead, Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell and Brain have defined the direction of the band over the last 15 years. Between the influence of Laswell and Buckethead, Praxis's musical experimentation in both studio, street and live settings have combined elements of mid-70’s Funkadelic & Miles Davis, hip-hop’s more avant-garde leanings, and Last Exit's ferocious yet organic jazz/metal aesthetic. Many of these experiments defined (and in some sense, invented) diverse, eclectic, and freeform genres including avant-garde, heavy metal, funk and jazz-fusion.

For the third manifestation of Praxis, Metatron, Laswell returned from the cut-and-paste trash metal of the second album, Sacrifist, to a band approach, as on the first, Transmutation. Concentrating on the core band of Buckethead, Brain and himself, he created an album which is close in spirit to the first one, but covers very different ground, and is also much weirder. Throughout the album, Buckethead is awe-inspiring, playing not only with lightning speed and enormous precision, but also with dangerous intensity. The production, however, is the record's second star: there are interesting sounds abound (drilling sounds, oscillators, wind etc.), and each track (and virtually every guitar part) has a sonic identity of its own. Metatron is an incredible album (although beginners should start with Transmutation) and easily one of Buckethead's best showcases.



01 - Wake The Dead (3:41)
02 - Skull Crack (We Are Not Sick Men) (5:16)
03 - Meta-Matic (2:30)
04 - Cathedral Space (Soft Hail Of Electrons) (1:20)
05 - Turbine (2:36)
06 - Vacuum-Mass (1:01)
07 - Cannibal (Heart Shape Of The Iron Blade) (3:07)
08 - Inferno/Heatseeker/Exploded Heart (9:21)
09 - Warm Time Machine/Low End Transmission/Over The Foaming Deep (4:14)
10 - Double Vision (3:11)
11 - Armed (Tsa Agent #5) (2:16)
12 - Warcraft (Bruce Lee's Black Hour Of Chaos) (3:07)
13 - Triad (The Saw Is Family) (3:13)
14 - Space After (The Conciousness That Dances And Kills) (2:54)

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Axiom Funk - Funkcronomicon (95)

This album features heavy participation from various members of Parliament-Funkadelic, to the point where "Funkcronomicon" could be considered a fully fledged P-Funk album. The album features what may be Pedro Bell's last authentic artistic renderings, as well as P-Funk guitarist Eddie Hazel's last recordings. Funkcronomicon is comprised of newly recorded tracks, as well as tracks that have been featured on other Bill Laswell productions.

So who's aboard ?
Bill Laswell , Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar , Aiyb Dieng , Anton Fier , Bernie Worrell, Herbie Hancock, J.D. Parron, Bootsy Collins , George Clinton, Nicky Skopelitis , Garry Shider , Michael Hampton, Buckethead, Maceo Parker , Sly Stone, Menace, Eddie Hazel and more...



Axiom Funk - Funkcronomicon (^ 276mb)

01 - Order Within The Universe (3:17)
02 - Under The Influence (5:45)
03 - If 6 Was 9 (6:00)
04 - Orbitron Attack (12:29)
05 - Cosmic Slop (5:16)
06 - Free-Bass (Godzillatron Cush) (5:43)
07 - Tell The World (3:53)
08 - Pray My Soul (5:08)

Axiom Funk - Funkcronomicon (^ 240mb)

09 - Hideous Mutant Freekz (7:25)
10 - Sax Machine (7:47)
11 - Animal Behavior (7:09)
12 - Trumpets And Violins, Violins (3:38)
13 - Telling Time (4:57)
14 - Jungle Free-Bass (5:38)
15 - Blackout (3:44)
16 - Sacred To The Pain (4:54)

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