Search - Bill Laswell, Yasuhiro Yoshigaki Yoshihide Otomo :: Soup

Japan New York Downtown Noise Monument Trio

Woo | Belgrade | 06/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you know Laswell works,than you know that from time to time he wents into this kind of music(Massacre,Purple Trap),like he is willing to release its anger that's been kept behind dub contemplative works he does most of the time.Ok,there is a bit of dub bass here too,but when he meets Otomo,guitar master of Japan and drummer Yasuhiro,it's like Massacre trip that went to confuse senses even more.Otomo is here really surprising,if you know his work you will notice.He sounds almost like Kawabata of Acid Mothers Temple.Laswell's bass is eating everything again.Drums are so low intense,you feel it all the time,and making a perfect groove.In between,all three play some kind of ambient improvised wash out.Song Crab is totally crazy with it's drive to unconscience trip and fall outs.When you feel that all three members are into a world of this thing together,it's a masterpiece of noise.Get it and eat it!"

Fierce improvs and angry atmospherics.

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 04/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Soup" is a collaboration between Japanese avant-jazz guitarist Otomo Yoshihide, downtown bassist/dub maestro Bill Laswell, and drummer Yoshigaki Yasuhiro (who I am only somewhat familiar with and therefore can't apply a clever appelation to him).



The album moves between raging, angry feedback-driven guitar workouts ("Duck") to totally ambient performances, relying on subtlety, timing of interaction and tense energy ("Mushroom"). The performances are pretty much universally fantastic, Laswell and Yoshigaki alternate between setting up deep grooves and providing a dizzying atmospheric sound, sometimes serving as the driving force, sometimes providing a framework on top of which Otomo can engage in feedback drenched pyrotechnics or provide a deeper texture. What's perhaps most amazing is that when the music is at its most stylized, textured and ambient (as in closer "Seaweeds"), it's pretty much at its most intense, demanding of the listener and sounding like it's primed to explode at any second.



In short, "Soup" is an extremely intense, powerful and loud (and yet sometimes ambient-- kidn of odd how that works out) album. It's the kind of thing that'll knock you over. Highly recommended."

This soup is delicious and hot

yajdubuddah | cheboygan,michigan usa | 04/19/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"im blown away. i waited so long to get this because i thought it was one of laswell's more massacre/ older praxis style with verry fast and un rythmic elements. but that's far from the truth. i cant fully agree with the other reviewer but he does know more about otomo than i do, but i didnt think it was so rough and agressive. I found it verry up tempo jazzy with light slow kaos spots. their is lots of traditional live laswell bass but with a lot of like flanger effects and echo. laswell also mixes lots of the drums and percussion with dub echos and effects at orange music new jersy. the guitar is filled with spacious soloing and distortion throught. the main reason i dont like the more metal stuff is im more of a dub reggae jazz/ eastern fan. i love rythm not just kaos, and i found the drums amazing, lots of fills and intense rythm. he does amazing percussion on the second song with his accoustic drumset going in and out. each of the songs open verry ambient, with laswell playing bass like invisible design then ripping into the jam. then the last song is verry ambient with the drummer playing trumpet. this album is produced by shin terai who has an album with laswell called unison and is amazing, then laswell remixed that to reveal shin heaven and hell. laswell mixes it at orange music using lots of ecoing of the drums his bass and adding his usual bleeps and electronic echoeing

the album is verry simulay to the hoppy uma ja_ck album but with out the funky style. its more structured than the purple trap cd but simular. i feel that this is no more koatic that miles david 69-75 period but without the super long verry ambient intros and outros, more like the dark magus live album and herbie hancock's sextent and crossings album

any fans of john zorn, uma, projekcts, dgm, laswell in general, different jazz.

the live album is verry simular but twice the price & twice the amount of music. their isnt as much integration of the saxes and violin as i could have hoped for but their in their and amazing, more fire with the live one too and songs are not at all the same songs but semi simular. that one fraws more to the pharoah sanders, miles and herbie elements though. live is definetelly not one to pass up on."