Bill Laswell

Bill Laswell continues one of his more successful series of recent years, Sacred System Dub is the ideal musical form for Laswell to take on, given his desire to release something like a thousand records a year. Unlike the belaboured, high-concept Material albums, or his clumsily programmed drum & bass musings, the Sacred System series keeps the rhythms simple and the ideas spare. Only one or two special guest stars (including usual suspects Nicky Skopelitis and Jah Wobble, as well as effected trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer and drummer Karsh Kale) show up at any one time, and their ideas are scattered sufficiently but not overbearingly through four ten-minute plus tracks. Laswell, even after 20-plus years of playing dub rhythms, sometimes has trouble coming up with killer-diller bass lines, but the songwriting is well paced and each dub suite modulates nicely. Dub Chamber 3 is not a major addition to Laswell's body of work, but it will help you unwind after a hard day at the office.