Search - Material :: One Down

Laswell's Funkiest!

Andre' S Grindle | Bangor,ME. | 09/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Take A Chance",Let Me Have It All","Come Down" and the

utterly memorable "Busting Out" are the hallmarks of Material's

most commited foray into funk,a genre that the bands far reaching albums generally skimmed over.With guest vocalists like

Bernard Fowler and Nona Hendryx on board the sound is very much

tight,prototype electro-funk;hooks and melodies play a much bigger part in the sound of the music.The next album 'Memory

Serves' would only hint at a particular groove as it swung into

a more obtuse avante garde jazz style.But for a consistant sample of the influence Bill Laswell has had on contemporary

funk 'One Down' is the album to go to!And to hear Whitney

Houston singing totally outside the pop context on the chilling

"Memories" is worth the price of admission to me!"

Early 80's Dance Music With An Unusual Edge

P. McKenna | Atlanta GA | 02/03/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"On one hand, sounding VERY much a product of its time (early 80's), yet oddly edgy and unusual, Bill Laswell actually found a way to slither into the mainstream, relatively speaking.



This is his "dance music experiment" so to speak, taking funky grooves, getting top vocal talent like Nona Hendrix and Bernard Fowler and overlaying it with his subversive experimentalism. "Busting Out" is one of the most successful tracks (and ya gotta love Nona Hendrix's soulful voice!) along with "Take A Chance", "Let Me Have It All" "I'm The One" and the unsettling "Time Out". Whitney Houston, of all people, shows up to give a vocal turn on "Memories".



WHo says dance music has to be boring?"

Pop Will Eat Its Experiments....

yygsgsdrassil | Crossroads America | 05/10/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"....subtitled "Meet the Original Material Girls"This is Laswell and Bienhorn's foray into funky-pop, and synthet dance moves. 'Course Material has been much more experimental in it's day...taking it's cue form the 80's East Coast avant-punk, intellectual electronica and performance art as culture era. Look up Laurie Anderson, Phillip Glass, Blondie and David Byrne w/ Talking Heads, Art of Noise, etc, etc, etc.....This is as funky as it wantsa be with the rendition of Sly Stone's "Let Me Have It All" featuring vocals by funk-rocktress-goddess Nona Hendryx. Listen to Laswell on that bass-line. He and Stone shoulda done something together.What makes this album historic is that this is probably the first vocal solo effort from pop-RandBee artiste Whitney Houston on the dance ditty "Memories". As such, however, don't kick down any doors trying to get this because she's featured on it. This is Laswell and Bienhorn's party and they can cry if they want to... jam if they want to. And they do. From "Take a Chance" to "Holding On" co-written by the great Brian Eno. It worth a mention or two primarily because of the deluge of turntablists and ambient/electronica/trance/triphop/acid jazz folks who need more of an idea of how these 'new sounds' originated and evolved."