ALTERED BEATS

ASSASSIN KNOWLEDGES OF THE REMANIPULATED

  1/  Temporary Power Surge                      (Laswell)                     1.06
      (Warning Introduction)
  2/  Reanimation -                              (Laswell,Swift)               4.05
        featuring DJ Rob Swift
  3/  3D-Cut Transmission -                      (Laswell,DXT,Wobble)          5.53
        Material featuring DXT, Jah Wobble, Bill Laswell and      
          Jerome "Bigfoot" Brailey
  4/  Shin-Ki-Row -                              (Krush)                       4.10
        DJ Krush
  5/  Black Hole Universe -                      (Laswell,DXT,Worrell)         2.09
        featuring DXT
  6/  If 9 Was 6 -                               (Prince Paul)                 2.00
        Prince Paul Instrumental Mix
  7/  If 666 Was '96 -                           (DXT)                         4.15
        DXT Mix	
  8/  Ancient Style -                            (Laswell,Swift,Sola)          6.06
        featuring DJ Rob Swift and Liu Sola
  9/  Invasion of the Octopus People -           (ISP)                         4.53
        Invisible Scratch Pickles (DJ Q-Bert, DJ Disk, Shortkut and Mixmaster Mike)
  10/ Embryo -                                   (DXT)                         4.30
        DXT
  11/ Return of the Black Falcon -               (Furlow,Laws,Harding)         3.40
        New Kingdom
  12/ One-Legged Centipede -                     (Quitevis)                    3.28
        Invisible Scratch Pickles featuring DJ Q-Bert
  13/ Black Wax -                                (Laswell)                     4.39
        Valis
  14/ Dust To Dust -                             (Spectre)                     4.43
        Spectre
  15/ If 6 Minutes Was 9 Minutes -               (Hendrix)                     7.20
        DXT featuring Shorty Black, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell and Greg Fritz

          Studios : Greenpoint Studio, Brooklyn, New York, Show-On Studio, Tokyo and
             Paul's Coffee Shop, Long Island, New York
          Engineers : Robert Musso, Oz Fritz, Jean-Pierre Sluys, DXT, Prince Paul, Koichi,
            "Oppenheimer" Matsuki and Scott Harding
          Generated by Bill Laswell
          Compiled and mastered at Greenpoint Studio by Robert Musso & Anton Fier
(4) Programmed, produced and mixed by DJ Krush; (6) Bootsy Collins : Space bass, vocal; Remixed, engineered and destroyed by Prince Paul; (7) Bootsy Collins : Space bass, vocal; Produced and mixed by DXT; (10) Produced and mixed by DXT; (11) Produced by Scott Harding and New Kingdom; (14) Reduced and jinxed by Spectre, the III St.; (15) Shorty Black : lyrical flow; Bootsy Collins : Space Bass, vocals; Bernie Worrell & Greg Fritz : back-ground vocals; Produced and arranged by DXT.

Tracks 6,7 and 15 contain exerpts from "If 6 Was 9", by Jimi Hendrix.

          1996  -  Axiom/Island (USA),  162-531 046-2  (CD)
          1996  -  Axiom/Island (???),  ???-524 253-2 (CD)
Note : The version with catalog number 162-531 046-2 doesn't contain track 15.

REVIEWS :

Not at all an Ambient piece, but I'm sticking it up here anyway because it's goofy. Steady Hip-Hop basements with odd fooglings from the various artists throughout; scratchwork, samples and other pleasantries. Keeps a roughly regular beat from start to finish, and Bootsy Collins even gets into the act! No links to him, but DJ Krush did Mo'Wax work, Spectre hangs with Wordsound, and Mr. Laswell can't be avoided at any cost. I think I was sold by DXT's most proper usage of this man's rant. Axiom is somehow bedded down with Island Records, so finding a copy downtown shouldn't be an effort.

Dan Foley (courtesy of the Ambience For the Masses website)

..................................................

More Bill Laswell! Seems like everything i pick up now has his fingerprints on it, you know? Tis disc delves more into his interest in abstract hip-hop stuff and particularly the actual DJs who assemble tracks out of disassembled culture and deconstructed muzack.

"Altered beats" kind of keeps to the more mainstream sounds of hip hop with bits of jazz, ambient, trip hop, etc, thrown in. There are plenty of solid, thumbing beats and lots of throbbing bass and also a lot of scratching. You know, scratching? The stuff you used to hear all the time in rap that seems to be disappearing slowly but surely? Yeah, that. I'm only going to discuss fully the really stand-out tracks because there are a few tracks that just don't hold up (the variations on "if 6 was 9" and dj krush's track, particularly). So.

"Ancient Style" combines Liu Sola's amazing voice with a solid beat, jazz-ic bassline and some nice sampled chimes and violins (i think). What makes the track is Rob Swift's scratching in of martial arts movie dialog; he speaks with his hands, truly. Invisible Scratch Pickles cut up some old early- rap records and beats in an echo chamber and plug in some fucked-up keyboard samples and demonstrate their mastery of scratching; the whole track manages to seem laid-back and edgy at the same time. "Embryo," by DXT (aka DST) mixes another great beat with some somber samples and vibes; the thing that makes the track in this case is the wonderful anti-UN paranoia-rant sampled vocals. New Kingdom has what i would say is the bad-ass track of the lot, combining dubby bass and echoes with a slow hip-hop beat and some synth-out-of-control noises; this song just exudes attitude. Spectre contributes "dust to dust" which is a nice, grim piece reminiscent of the stuff he did on "Valis I."

grievous (courtesy of the Noise From the Spleen of Space website)