SXL: Into The Outlands

front

Enemy Records 1988.  EMY106

Discogs

OK, so let’s get the obvious out of the way first.  Band name is crap, album title is crap, and this must be the worst cover I’ve posted so far.  What this unpromising artifact is though is one of Bill Laswell’s innumerable projects.  In fact I can’t believe that almost a year into writing this blog, this is the first Laswell post I’ve done.

As is usual with Laswell, this is a collaboration, in this case a group of traditional Korean drummers whose thunderous rhythms fit surprisingly well with Laswell’s dubbed out funk.  This is a live recording, and sounds improvised to me, although my guess is they set up some of the motifs in advance and did a spot of rehearsal.

Bill Laswell is irritating because he has no quality control at all.  He records incessantly and everything gets released, garbage or gem.  This, rest assured is a gem.