Search - Method of Defiance :: The Only Way To Go Is Down

Drum+Laswell bass

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 02/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm going to start off by admitting this one is a bit out of my domain-- while I've flirted with techno/drum-n-bass and Bill Laswell's music, I'm not overly familiar with either. As such, I come into Method of Defiance's "The Only Way to Go Is Down" without the ability to consider it with respect to Laswell's greater body of work or within the form. That aside, I can safely state that this is one fantastic record.



Method of Defiance is downtown New York City bassist/production luminary Bill Laswell, Ohm Resistence label head DJ Submerged, and drummer Guy Licata. Together with collaborators both named (Kondo and Enduser) and unnamed (guessing Graham Haynes and Buckethead as well as others), the group whips together a fierce and relentless stew. Essentially, the formula throughout is to layer beats and what sounds like samples or synthesizer performances with live drumming, Laswell's dub infused bass and whatever else happened to be within striking distance. As a whole, it proves to be a varied and powerful listen, constantly maintaining my attention. My complaint with drum-n-bass has often been its repetitive nature, but clearly enough has been learned by these guys to keep this constantly moving, to introduce interludes, melodies, themes, ideas, noise, whatever, to keep things moving positive.



Bottom line-- I loved this record. I can't say enough good things about it."

Hehe... i am giddy!

x0r n3g4r10u2 | lost | 06/08/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Laswell's live on-the-fly bass playing actually ADDS! an interesting new take to tek-step and aggro-dnb... um... enough about the 'bass' part of this Drum n' Bass masterpiece. The entourage comes up with complex beats that (as the other's stated) repeat or get redundant, but would still get people up and on their feet in the club... EVEN MAYBE TOTALLY STOKED AND ASTOUNDED!!!??? I, for one, would love to be the one to introduce tracks from this album into a real DnB scene, but sadly, i'm a sit at home kinda guy. yes, my raving days have been over for a few years now. but some of these tracks would be very welcome in any dieselboy, ak1200, or dara mix... hell, even the hip-hop/dark-dub tracks are executed with utmost precision. the melody factor is a bit strange and the funk influences come out pretty blatantly and kinda make you wonder if the fusion is going to work... aaaaaaaaaaand... it does! i'm a bit bewildered still... definately cutting edge. reminds me of the first time i heard all the great DnB mixes and CDs: LTJ Bukem 'Promise Land 1', Roni Size 'Reprazent' (um... they are all amazing tho), Dieselboy 'Soldier's Story'... and i must note Pendulum 'Hold your Colour'.

Also, this is a very FULL album; it spills over with Laswell's knowledge of ambience and how sounds or absence of sound will work BEST instead of just GET THE JOB DONE. the breakdowns are perfect and the kick-ins never let down.



final words: NOT CONTRIVED. SUCCESSFULLY AVANT-GARDE. BUY IT FO YA HED, push things forward. EOL.

thanks for you time and consideration."

BIG LODA, let your body take control

yajdubuddah | cheboygan,michigan usa | 04/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"another brutal calling.

this is another brutal drum & bass asault by bill laswell & kurt glick aka submerged, but this time they inlist guy licata on drums 3,5,7, toshinori kondo trumpet 4,6, & enducer 9 sounds.

so if any of you have heard brutal calling its quite simmilar but instead of an all out d&b album this 1 has 2 songs with toshinori that are more of the slow dark dub calliber of equations of eternity veve style. the album is like 1 really long song with no breaks. this will also apeal to fans of squarpusher because their isnt all that repotition involved, its very organic & flowing. & like square laswell also kicks down the bad ass bass. also simmilar to laswell's work on the oscillations records, mostelly final oscillations but without all the ambience. so i hope all you laswell fans wont think that hese doing anything different or new cause this is just more of that classic laswell that i have come to know & love."