Bill Laswell - Imaginary Cuba
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Bill LaswellEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1999-09-14
Music Label: RCA
Soundtracks:
- Habana Transmission 1#/Avisale A La Vecina Dub
- Para Clave Y Guaguanco
- Loungin With F.E.
- Chacon And Daniel
- Dejala En La Puntica
- Habana Transmission 2#/Cuban Evolution
- Los Ibellis
- Habana Transmission 3#/Shango Sound Scan
- Hombre Lobo, No! Hombre Nuevo, Si
- Guerillero Heroico (El Che Vive!)
- Shango
- Pompa At The House
- Madre No Me Pida In Dub
- Chaos In The Heat (Last Transmission)
- Drafting Shadows/Leaving La Habana (Peaceful)
Free Music Notes for Imaginary Cuba
Free Music Review: Unimaginatively Cuban
Hit: 2 Stars
"Imaginary Cuba" falls short of living up to expectations and I hypothesize that the good reviews are a product of circular reporting. This project had so much going for it. First, the content: Cuba is a nation rich with interesting music. Second, the mastermind: Bill Laswell has created jewels remixing music by the likes of Miles Davis and Vodu 155. Third, the concept: a project that trips-out Cuban music was long overdue. What went wrong? For starters, the original recordings are weak. They sound like field recordings made with a microphone placed far away from the musicians. Beyond the sound quality, the source recordings are musically mediocre. This project created music with no hooks or memorable melodies. I dare any of the reviewers who gave this five stars to hum a single melody from "Imaginary Cuba." This CD sounds like the soundtrack to a bad dream as somebody with attention deficit disorder wandered around a musical maze. Finally, Laswell did a weak job of putting everything together. While much of the disc sounds like an amateur field recording, the processed tracks just don't work. The beats, the digital effects and similar components fall flat. While there are some good drum solos, the most redeeming quality about "Imaginary Cuba" is the artwork. One reviewer wrote, "This ain't no Buena Vista Social Club!" That about sums it up.
Imaginary Cuba Poster
Your taste for Bill Laswell's collection and reconstruction of various Cuban sounds on Imaginary Cuba depends entirely on your taste for the patented sonic stamp that the producer, bassist, and "mix translator" affixes to nearly all his projects. In other words, Laswell's Imaginary Cuba is just that: a made-up journey through various Afro-Cuban percussion tracks, street singing, and strummed tres melodies, with more than a healthy helping of Laswell's familiar ambient-wash production and sometimes-intrusive, added hip-hop/dub backbeats. Gathering performances by Cuban musicians such as Frank Emilio, Septeto Nacional, Los Ibellis, and others, the disc isn't so much a various-artists compilation as it is a DJ mix, complete with added production and beats that move each track seamlessly into the next. There are moments when Laswell's production takes him to some interesting territory, as on the four "Habana Transmission" tracks, where he layers breakbeats, dub bass lines, and hip-hop snare drums beneath washes of Afro-Cuban percussion and tres guitar parts. However, listeners looking for more traditional Cuban music may be somewhat disappointed, as this is less a faithful recording of Afro-Cuban music than it is one producer's vision of the marriage between Afro-Cuban music and his own already-developed sound. --Ezra GaleDance & DJ Music CDs
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