Material (tape)

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material
Bill Laswell (2006)
Bill Laswell (2006)
General information
origin New York , United States
Genre (s) No wave
founding 1979
Current occupation
Bill Laswell
former members
Michael Beinhorn (until 1985)
Fred Maher (until 1981)
Martin Bisi (until 1980)

Material is a music project led by bassist and producer Bill Laswell that was founded as a band in 1979. One of the greatest successes was a Grammy Award for the single Rockit in collaboration with Herbie Hancock . The first recordings of Whitney Houston as a solo singer were released on the material album One Down in 1982 .

Material as a band

Inspired by the impresario Giorgio Gomelsky , the bassist Bill Laswell looked for members for a band in a newspaper advertisement in 1978, whereupon the friends Michael Beinhorn , Fred Maher and Martin Bisi got in touch. Together they became the house band in Gomelsky's "Zu Club" in Manhattan and later the backing band for the New York Gong project led by Daevid Allen . An album called About Time was released in 1979. In the same year, Temporary Music 1 was the first EP to be released under the name Material (with Don Davis , among others ), and Temporary Music 2 followed in 1980 . In 1981 the two EPs were collected and released as the album Temporary Music on Celluloid Records. The band name came from the title Materialism from the album by New York Gong. Martin Bisi had already left the group after the first EP, but occasionally still worked as a sound engineer.

The album Memory Serves was created in 1981 together with the guitarists Sonny Sharrock and Fred Frith . The EP Bustin 'Out with guest singer Nona Hendryx was a hit in the dance music charts, the title track was popular in the discos. In 1982 the album One Down followed , now without Fred Maher. In addition to Nona Hendryx, Whitney Houston was also represented with her first solo vocal recording. The piece she interpreted Memories with saxophone solos by Archie Shepp was originally written by Hugh Hopper for his band Soft Machine , of which David Aellen was also a member. The critic Robert Christgau called the material version one of the most beautiful ballads that one has ever heard . Nicky Skopelitis , who was to accompany Laswell for the following decades, also played the guitar on the album .

Material as a producer team

In 1983 Herbie Hancock engaged Laswell and Beinhorn as producers for his album Future Shock . The single Rockit , written by the two of them, reached the global charts, in many countries the top 10. In 1984 the piece won a Grammy Award for the best instrumental performance in the field of rhythm & blues . The video with robots by Jim Whiting , produced by Godley & Creme , won five MTV Video Music Awards in the same year , including for the most experimental video and in various technical disciplines. The video was nominated in three other categories, including the best video of the year and the audience award. The follow-up album Sound-System was released in 1984 and, in 1988, Perfect Machine (without leg horn). In 2001 this trilogy was expanded to include Future 2 Future .

In 1984 the single World Destruction with Afrika Bambaataa and John Lydon was released under the name Time Zone . Bambaataa had actually wanted to work with Def Leppard , but Laswell didn't know that. He suggested the Sex Pistols' singer as a replacement .

In 1985, Beinhorn and Laswell separated. Separately, they produced artists such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers , Soul Asylum , Ozzy Osbourne , Soundgarden and Marilyn Manson (Beinhorn) as well as Mick Jagger , Yoko Ono , Sly and Robbie , Public Image Ltd. , Ginger Baker , Peter Gabriel , Motörhead , Ramones , Bootsy Collins and the Limbomaniacs (Laswell).

Material as a project by Bill Laswell

From 1989 Laswell used the name Material for various projects of his own, beginning with Seven Souls , an album with lyrics by William S. Burroughs . From then on, many musicians were involved, with whom Laswell also worked in other constellations, for example Nicky Skopelitis and the percussionist Aïyb Dieng and Jeff Bova on the keyboards. A remix album called The Road to the Western Lands was added to Seven Souls in 1998 .

Other albums in this period were The Third Power (1991), among others with Shabba Ranks , Herbie Hancock, Bernie Worrell , Maceo Parker and Gary Shider , Hallucination Engine (1994) with Bootsy Collins, Jonas Hellborg and Wayne Shorter , and in 1999 finally Intonarumori to which, inter alia, DJ Disk , Lori Carson , Killah Priest and Rammellzee involved.

After a long break, a new live album was released with Mesgana Ethiopia , on which Laswell's wife Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw is in the foreground. The recordings were made in Austria in July 2009.

Discography (selection)

  • Temporary Music (1981)
  • Memory Serves (1981)
  • One Down (1982)
  • Seven Souls (1989)
  • Live from Soundscape (1991, live recordings from 1981)
  • The Third Power (1991)
  • Live in Japan (1993, live recordings from 1992)
  • Hallucination Engine (1993)
  • The Road to the Western Lands (1998, remixes by Seven Souls )
  • Intonarumori (1999)
  • Mesgana Ethiopia (2010)

Important collaborations

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Hann: Whitney Houston: Five great performances. In: The Guardian , February 12, 2012.
  2. ^ Robert Christgau : Consumer Guide Reviews: Material.
  3. ^ Past Winners Search on grammy.com
  4. ↑ John Doran: Bill Laswell Interviewed: Bass. How Low Can You Go? In: The Quietus , July 15, 2009.