Search - Jah Wobble's Solaris :: Jah Wobble's Solaris - Live in Concert

Superb!

Fortitudo Dei | New Zealand | 05/14/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This first caught my eye as it featured some of my favourite musicians from the past 30 years (unexpectedly) together - Jah Wobble, Harold Budd, Jaki Leibezeit, Bill Laswell and Graham Haynes - each of whom add their own distinctive touches in this thoroughly satisfying "jam". This remarkable collaboration is taken from live concert recordings of 4 lengthy improvised pieces. Different structural elements come, go, and occasionally fly off on a tangent, but are always brought back to earth by Leibezeit's distinctive metronomic beats and Laswell's driving bass rifts. Grahame Haynes lays down washes of heavily delayed cornet over much of the opening track. The sound reminded me a little of John Hassell's experimental trumpet pieces, but more so of Throbbing Gristle's Cosi Fanny Tutte's cornet playing on "Heathen Earth". In fact at times I imagined that this could be what TG might sound like if they had developed their playing skills over the past two decades, and then got together for a 20th anniversary reunion concert (now there's an idea!). Most surprising is Harold Budd contribution on piano and keyboards. A musician which until now I have generally considered to composer in the "ambient" sphere, assaults his equipment to produce a wild range of tones, buzzes and squawks. Laswell's bass and Haynes's cornet are also heavily modulated at times, producing the kind of satisfying warm sound that comes when "real" instruments collide with "live" electronics in a raw, somewhat unpredictable fashion. Though I suspect these improvised electronic modulations were produced on suitably modern gear, I have a mental image in my head of a stage filled with tape delay machines, buzzing tube amps, and 1970's-era modular analogue synthesisers stitched together with a tangle of patch leads. Though Wobble was the instigator of this project, he seems happy to sit in the background, providing a deep unobtrusive bass which the other musicians work around, almost like a tamboura player grounding a raga during a Indian classical music performance.
A must for anyone who loves the German group "Can" - or simply hearing five superb, highly accomplished and innovative musicians improvise together in a live situation."

Great Stuff

Scott McFarland | Manassas, VA United States | 03/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You expect a lot, given the players' credentials, and it's delivered here. Can comes to mind. The music mixes low-end dub thud and repetitive rhythm with floating psyched-out noise like the best of "space rock" from any era. All the players' personalities are in there. What a great record.

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