Bill Laswell


Bill Laswell (born February 12, 1955 in Salem, Illinois and raised in Albion, Michigan) is an American bassist, producer and record label owner. He is married to Ethiopian singer Gigi.
Laswell ranks among the most prolific of musicians, being involved in hundreds of recordings with many musicians from all over the world. Laswell's music draws upon many different genres, most notably funk, various world music, jazz, dub and ambient styles. He has also played or produced music from the noisier, more aggressive end of the rock spectrum, like hardcore punk and metal.
According to music critic Chris Brazier, "Laswell’s pet concept is 'collision music' which involves bringing together musicians from wildly divergent but complementary spheres and seeing what comes out."[1] The credo of one record label run by Laswell, and which typifies much of his work, is “Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted”. Though projects arranged by Laswell may be credited under the same name and often feature the same roster of musicians, the styles and themes explored on different albums can vary dramatically: Material began as a noisy dance music project, but subsequent releases have been centered around hip hop, jazz, or backing spoken word readings by beat generation icon William S. Burroughs. Similarly, all versions of Praxis have featured guitarist Buckethead, but have explored different permutations with each new album.
Though some artists have chaffed against Laswell's distinctive recording and production style — most noticeably some of his for hire production gigs like Motörhead, Swans and White Zombie — many other collaborations, such as with pianist Herbie Hancock and singer Iggy Pop have been lengthier and recurring.


Bill Laswell - The amazing musical world of the greatest experimental artist


Bill Laswell - Deconstruction: The Celluloid Recordsings - Double CD on Celluloid Records
Bill Laswell - Deconstruction: The Celluloid Recordsings - Double CD on Celluloid Records


A more than adequate overview of Bill Laswell's work at Celluloid, where he successfully blurred the division lines between hip-hop, rap, reggae, African music, jazz, and avant-garde, this two-CD anthology includes his work as a producer as well as solo and band recordings. Laswell displays both his strengths and weaknesses (brilliant bass playing, over-reliance on some techno-toys, an ear for combinations, a tendency to lock down in one place). One of his strongest pieces, "World Destruction" (Time Zone, featuring Afrika Bambaataa and John Lydon), kicks the album off, and after that it's a true roller coaster ride that sails through various lineups of Material via Manu Dibango, Massacre, Fela Anukulapo Kuti, the Last Poets, and Ginger Baker, among others. Some listeners will explore further, which they will most likely find beneficial.
Bill Laswell / Pete Namlock - Psychonavigation - CD on Strata Records
Bill Laswell / Pete Namlock - Psychonavigation - CD on Strata Records


Psychonavigation is a trip and a half. Pete Namlook and Bill Laswell have created a set of sonic hallucinogens that permeate the psyche. These sequences and atmospheres are full of experimental sounds, strange samples, and overt space music riffs. There is nothing earthly about this music. The atmospheres are inhuman. The evocations are metallic and robotic. The flow, however, is smooth and fluid. Namlook and Laswell are visiting the ultimate oxymoron -- fluid metal. The answers are as mysterious as quicksilver itself. This is one of the best Namlook/Laswell collaborations. It will appeal to fans of Amani, Tales, and Dweller at the Threshold. It is essential space music.


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Material - Seven Souls - CD with William S Burroughs and Bill Laswell on Virgin Records
Material - Seven Souls - CD with William S Burroughs and Bill Laswell on Virgin Records


This collaboration with William S. Burroughs and many international names works like a charm. It contains lots of strong underground grooves with Burroughs's unmistakable prose.
Material - Temporary Music 1979-1981 - CD featuring Bill Laswell on Celluloid Records
Material - Temporary Music 1979-1981 - CD featuring Bill Laswell on Celluloid Records


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. The group, plus Kramer and a few others backed Gong's Daevid Allen during his New York visit, resulting in the album About Time by New York Gong. 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. A guest list running the gamut from Nile Rodgers to a then-unknown Whitney Houston distinguished the avant funk of 1982's One Down, the final Material LP before a nearly decade-long hiatus; 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.
Bill Laswell - Hear No Evil - Cassette tape on Subharmonic Records
Bill Laswell - Hear No Evil - Cassette tape on Subharmonic Records


A wonderful producer and bassist whose albums are more rock and instrumental pop than jazz.
Divination - Ambient Dub Volume 1 - Cassette tape featuring Bill Laswell on Subharmonic Records
Divination - Ambient Dub Volume 1 - Cassette tape featuring Bill Laswell on Subharmonic Records


In recent years, bassist and underground magnate Bill Laswell has become a sort of one-man music factory, assembling ad hoc ensembles from members of the hiphop, avant-garde, improv, turntablist, and rock communities. Laswell's productions are often billed as "dub," though they de-emphasize the studio-manipulated re-percussions of such Jamaican masters as Lee "Scratch" Perry and King Tubby and, thus, are not dub in any traditional sense. Instead, they borrow as selectively from dub as they do from such musical idioms as techno and funk.

AMBIENT DUB VOL. 1, the first in a series of (often radically different) Divination projects, shows an impressive scope. Brilliant guitarists Buckethead and Nicky Skopelitis add arachnid-like webs of texture to Robert Musso's dusky synths and Ben Bova's ethereal electronics. Laswell's bass hews deep, reciprocal grooves into the thick and exotic atmospheres. The album veers from weightlessly abstract ambience ("Erratta," "Ain Soph Aour") to the quasi-dub rhythmic fluctuations of "Delta" and the all-out ethno-techno-funk of "Agrippa." "Seven Heavens" works up a healthy trance-delic sweat, while "Tian Zhen," a spotlight for Liu Sola's wraith-like (part priestess, part pygmy) voice, and the Sola-powered techno-shamanism of "Godspeed" send shivers down the spine. Dub? No, but fine music nonetheless.


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