MATERIAL

THE ROAD TO THE WESTERN LANDS

  1/  The Seven Souls -                          (Burroughs,Laswell)           5.47
        Bill Laswell
  2/  The Western Lands -                        (Burroughs,Singh)             6.36
        Talvin Singh
  3/  The Western Lands -                        (Burroughs,Soul Slinger)      5.09
        DJ Soul Slinger
  4/  The Road To the Western Lands -            (Burroughs,Coxon,Wales)       6.17
        Spring Heel Jack
  5/  Joan's Haunted Hints At the Gates          (Burroughs,Olive)             6.37
           of the Western Lands -
        The Audio Janitor (DJ Olive)
  6/  Seven Souls (The Secret Name) -            (Burroughs,Laswell)           10.37
        Bill Laswell
  7/  The Western Lands -                        (Burroughs,Laswell)           8.31
        Bill Laswell

          Original tracks recorded at Platinum Island Studio and B.C. Studio, New York
          Each track produced by it's respective writer(s)
          Original vocal production by James Grauerholz
          Compiled at Orange Music, Orange, New Jersey
          Engineer : Robert Musso
          Music Supervisor : Janet Rienstra, Luma Productions
          Mastered by Michael Fossenkemper at Turtle Tone Studio, NYC
          Axiom Input : Bill Murphy
          Material Inc. : John Brown
          Orange Music : Amy Hersenhoren
(1,6) Alicia Renee aka Blue Eyes : vocals; Bill Laswell : bass, keyboards, turntables; Nicky Skopelitis : guitar; Robert Musso : engineering, processing; (7) Jah Wobble : bass; Bill Laswell : bass samples; Nicky Skopelitis : guitars; Tetsu Inoue : electronics; DJ Spooky : noise.

          1998  -  Meta/Triloka/Mercury (USA),  314 558-021-2  (CD)

REVIEWS :

This generous remix album delivers five versions of "The Western Lands" and two of the title tracks from Material's Seven Souls album, which was originally released on the Virgin label in 1989 and was reissued by Triloka in 1997. (Tracks one and seven are duplicated on the full album.) All of the remixes are radical departures from the album tracks on which they're based, and you might never guess that all the "Western Land" mixes are based on the same original version if it wasn't for the wisps of William Burroughs' laconic spoken-word vocals fluttering in and out of all of them. There are lots of big names here, including Talvin Singh (who weighs in with an attractively funky, if unexciting, selection), DJ Olive and DJ Soul Slinger (who gets more radical with the source material, messes around more with Burroughs' voice and creates extremely intricate rhythms, to compelling effect). Spring Heel Jack take a sort of ambient approach, with frankly boring results. But Bill Laswell's ten-minute excursion on "Seven Souls" is a revelation. Recommended with minor reservations.

Rick Anderson (courtesy of the All Music Guide by way of the Get Music website)