Bill Laswell
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- turtlejon1
- pluggin' in mics
- Posts: 39
- Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2007 8:02 am
- Location: traveliving
i bought "hallucination engine" from him in 94 and have bought it 3 times again (i only got a computer a few years ago) i think this is my favorite album ever. i would love to know more details, was it somewhat live, how was the room laid out, how much was automated, how much was planned vs jammmed,
it changed my world, and really deserves a good listen from anyone who enjoys interesting sound and music.
it changed my world, and really deserves a good listen from anyone who enjoys interesting sound and music.
-always thankful-
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- buyin' gear
- Posts: 507
- Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 7:12 am
- Location: Lansing, MI
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yes - this is one of the better ones. Bill's been doing more press/PR of late. In the past he really wasn't keen on that sort of thing, just preferring to do his thing and let it all speak for itself.
Anyway, here's a partial list of some interviews from over the years if anyone is interested...as well as some articles about Bill.
http://www.silent-watcher.net/billlaswe ... views.html
Adding more as I have them.
if you haven't noticed btw, Hallucination Engine has been re-released on 180g vinyl by a company called Music on Vinyl. Beautiful packaging and pressing. They are partnered with Polygram in some way or another. Bill had no hand in this since he doesn't control Axiom's back catalog, but he's very happy with the pressing and hoping they may pick up another Axiom release or two.turtlejon1 wrote:i bought "hallucination engine" from him in 94 and have bought it 3 times again (i only got a computer a few years ago) i think this is my favorite album ever. i would love to know more details, was it somewhat live, how was the room laid out, how much was automated, how much was planned vs jammmed,
it changed my world, and really deserves a good listen from anyone who enjoys interesting sound and music.
As for the album...yeah...this may be the one that really put me over the fence. I've never asked specifics, but knowing how Bill works a lot of the time, much of it was not recorded live. Partiularly back then, and if you look at the songs and the fact that some of them showed up in other places before HE came out (Mantra was a single that was not initially tied to an album, the Burroughs track also a remix not tied to the album and one other track was actually largely used on a Masabumi Kikuchi album Bill did) you can see how the final product was somewhat cobbled together. With that one I think Bill took advantage of people who were around for other albums and pieced together a nice solid, cohesive sounding album from those parts. I would also guess most of it was fairly well thought out in Bill's head already - not so much 'jamming' though various people's parts were undoubtedly done on the fly.
As for the room...the old Greenpoint Studio was just one massive room. the control room wasn't even seperated if I recall - just with moveable baffles. i think very few musicians recorded their parts WITH the other players present on each track. and since each track had more or less a different cast...
fwiw, MOD Technologies will be picking up steam this year. we may never reach Axiom's highs, but the label has afforded Bill to do more work that fits into the overall Axiom ethos - more experimental, more of a wide range etc...
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- takin' a dinner break
- Posts: 156
- Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 12:37 am
- Location: Berkeley, CA
Really enjoyed the Laswell interview! I believe he had meningitis in the last couple years, good to know he's back on his feet again.
slntwtchr - your site has been a great help in finding more info on BL. I appreciate that he doesn't over-share online...it keeps a sense of mystery and discovery. I also like your site's nice, clean design!
slntwtchr - your site has been a great help in finding more info on BL. I appreciate that he doesn't over-share online...it keeps a sense of mystery and discovery. I also like your site's nice, clean design!
Thank you for the kind words. I'm terrible on visual design but I also try and make things as simple as possible. I do want to change it up again at some point but have others things going on. It's (I think pretty obviously) a labor of love and OCD!Winstontaneous wrote:Really enjoyed the Laswell interview! I believe he had meningitis in the last couple years, good to know he's back on his feet again.
slntwtchr - your site has been a great help in finding more info on BL. I appreciate that he doesn't over-share online...it keeps a sense of mystery and discovery. I also like your site's nice, clean design!
The funny thing with Bill is that he's getting more and more 'connected' these days. What I discovered (and he's as much as said to me) is that he really doesn't care - if he's asked a question he'll generally answer it. He's not deliberately playing things close. I think it stems from the fact that he's got such an extraordinary amount of things in his head at any given time that he's always forward looking when he's not in the studio. It doesn't help when you get a lot of interviewers who either haven't done their research, or are just plain terrible at questioning and then Bill gets annoyed and well, you know from there. That's all my take anyway. Of course I don't speak wholly for Bill - just my observations.
I will also say that Bill is unbelievably generous and unbelievably ego free in the broad sens of the word. Very sure of what he's doing but not egotsistical.
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