Material
Hallucination Engine

Introduction: After the last few years of my life spent in an almost musical fast, I found myself, thanks to the internet and DeBaser, in the most complete musophile abundance. I felt like Hansel and Gretel in front of the gingerbread house, feeling the same joy and greed as the children. Then I came to the realization that I couldn't taste everything, risking a musical indigestion. Now after a few months of adjustment, I have decided to try to narrow the scope of my research mainly to the field of Brazilian music, and, to two artists named Fred Frith and Bill Laswell. Only two? Yes, only two, but these two in reality are worth a hundred and keeping up with all their achievements and collaborations will not be a minor task. I'm starting with this album because it’s where I got to know Bill Laswell.

The Material began as a collaboration between Laswell and Michael Beinhorn following their first group, "The Zu Band," during Laswell's early years in New York. From '79 to '82, "Material" released three albums: "Temporary Music," "One Down," and "Memory Serves."

In '89, Laswell decided to leave "Celluloid" and with the permission of Chris Blackwell, president of "Island," founded the subsidiary "Axiom," over which he assumed control and total freedom of action.

Under "Axiom," Laswell reestablished Material, less as a group, much more as a musical project. He himself states: "I had no interest in forming a group or playing with anyone specific. I was interested in interacting with different musicians and different musical styles rather than being tied to something defined."

After "The Third Power" of '91, sparsely reviewed on these pages, "Hallucination Engine" was released in '94, featuring the presence of many musicians, mostly Eastern. It seems that this is the key to understanding: music with Western forms and Eastern colors.

What I appreciate about Laswell is that he doesn't easily relinquish the "physical" side of music, that organic pulse that in this album emerges with much force, to build cold cerebral architectures as happens to many musicians who venture beyond the boundaries of genre.

"Hallucination Engine" is loaded with pleasant rhythms immersed in a rich timbral world. I remember listening to the second track "Mantra" in a nightclub, if I'm not wrong, as the opening for the dances.

It's important to immediately highlight the significant presence of Wayne Shorter who with precious humility gives a decisive contribution of vitality and pathos to various songs (especially "Black Light" and "Eternal Drift""). He seems to enjoy greater freedom, (along with Lakshmi Shankar's violin but only in the last track), since the other musicians often find themselves framed in a scheme we might define as "ethno-dance", where acoustic instruments, especially Hussein's tablas, intertwine with Laswell's "loops" and "beats." "The Inner Garden/Naima" is the softer track where solo instruments and the voice enjoy more breathing space, not for nothing is it where the scent of the East is felt the most. Also notable is the presence of William Burroughs, who surprises with the fantastic timbre of his voice supported by a calm blues interspersed with Shorter's horns (it's a pity I don't understand English). It seems obvious to say that Laswell's bass supports this work the whole time; it is the fuel of this engine of hallucinations.

An aesthetically precise album, an electronic embrace of the East, which because of its formal quest perhaps remains a bit cold, somewhat superficial, at points prolix, but on the other hand who is capable of mixing two such different cultures without losing something? I don't believe Laswell wanted to make a world music album, nor a disco album, however, he didn't manage to go beyond, to dig deep, perhaps it wasn't even in his expectations, perhaps he just wanted to give us this: an album rich with beautiful sounds and easy listening, a catchy record without being banal, far from those intricate languages with which he and his bass often speak to us.