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Zarko · 04-01-2009, 03:07 AM

Inamorata – Method Of Defiance (2007)

GENRES – Drum n’ Bass, Electronic, Jazz, Dub

Ta'wil - 7:56
Humanoid - 4:48
Hidden Killer - 4:55
Amenta - 6:48
Panepha - 4:44
Babylon Decoder - 5:20
Aibi-Virus - 6:41
Anti-Jazz Glitch - 6:39
Black Water - 4:28
Pattern Engine - 4:56
Aether - 5:13
Remains - 6:28

Yet another Laswell project and one of the better pure electronic based ones might I add. If you ever wanted an overly-elaborate group of ‘friends’ to assist in a DnB project, this one has them all. I will list them all at the end, but safe to say, it is one of the larger lists I have seen (I am not too big on the normal DnB scene, so I may be off a bit). The result is mix of pure DnB, some interesting over tones and some well placed beats.

‘Ta’Wil’ stars Pharoah Sanders and Submerged for the opening track of the album. Starting off with a calming sax solo, heavier and instrumentation beats are layered on the song to liven it up into what it become. The core DnB sound is the foundation to the rest of the album, with interesting additions from various artists here and there. Sanders superior sax playing takes centre stage quite a bit. A little more Laswell mixing is added later on in the piece, including some nice wind instrument samples that make it stand out a bit better than it did at the start of the song. Sanders sends the song out is awesome fashion.

‘Humanoid’ starts off as a more hard edged DnB piece with some grand guitar dub depth from Laswell himself before Buckethead offers his own piece of raw guitar strumming. The mix itself is a lot more interesting than the opening track, without any single instrument overriding another. Kondo also offers up some quality trumpet playing here and there, though not enough of it in my honest opinion. The keyboardist also adds a touch of Davis ‘In a Silent Way’ magic, which I love. ‘Hidden Killer’ offers a more distorted dub DnB base, with some unique (To me) mixing from Black Sun Empire. Haynes however, is a standout on his cornet, creating some pleasant depth along with Cosey’s psychedelic guitar lines. I enjoy the more dulled tones and distortion, more so than the other songs so far. Haynes pulls out some near robotic strings of playing, which is a solid contrast to his normal natural style of playing.

‘Amenta’ offers a more worldly and acoustic DnB base compared to the other songs so far. Much of the early drum is on small djembe, whilst the small flute like instrument is another treat. Lancaster takes full control and shakes the piece around, and along with the nice metal drums and djembe, create an earthy feeling around the song, which I find is quite rare in the genre as a whole.

‘Panepha’ introduces one of jazz’s mainstays into the project, to an awesome result. Mr’ Han**** steps up to the plate on keyboard, and his impact is instantaneous. He carries that mystical ‘Silent Way’ feeling I was talking about earlier and makes it into something totally different with the DnB. His playing is eclectic, yet never feels too out of touch with the rest of the instrumentation. ‘Babylon Decoder’ is another interesting piece that molds a few pieces of the puzzle into one tower… Amit’s assistance on the mixing side of things is obvious as he creates a bubbly sort of twangy beat that Buckethead plays against with all his aggression. The piece itself becomes more hostile psychedelic, as the piece is never dragged down to earth by a heavy drum and bass base. The tones and pitch lend itself to create this spacey mood. Laswell’s bass in the background is also a nice addition over the light electronic foundation.

‘Aibi Virus’ begins with quite a few dark samples…. What sounds like someone screaming, someone tortured… It’s pretty freaky when used in conjunction with the dulled drum and bass electronics. John Zorn is present in all his normal ways, pulling out the alto sax and trying to rape your ears. There is a beautiful addition from the Masada String Trio, who rip at their violin strings, trying to fit in as much as possible. We soon hit a ‘calm’ period, where the trio start playing normally, before chaos reigns once again. Its pure noise at times, as you struggle to pick one vein of instrumentation over another. The quiet ending with the Trio once again pulling out their classical influence is a beautiful aspect.

‘Anti Jazz Glitch’ opens with Craig Taborn on his keyboard; giving the impression that perhaps the album has calmed down a bit… This is also a nice contract to the chaos that just reigned a minute ago. The keyboard stays in power throughout, as everything is seemingly altered sound wise by its existence. The keyboard never feels forced to keep up with the DnB speed, instead adding its own impact at its own rate.

‘Black Water’ is a more trip hop sound than anything else on the album. It isn’t the type of down tempo trip hop that makes you fall asleep; it keeps your attention throughout. Lancaster in particular offers up a decent change in terms of instrument tempo, and the actual drumming doesn’t try too much to detract from his performance, until they both decide to step up the pace. Haynes on cornet adds a contrast between the two wind instruments, as they try to outdo each other. ‘Pattern Engine’ is more of what we’ve heard; the DnB electronics are a bit more mechanical compared to the other pieces so far. Liebman shows off his soprano saxophone skills at times, but on the whole, there are far better tracks on the album.

‘Aether’ was the track I was really waiting for, primarily due to the addition of Nils Petter Molvaer on trumpet. The glitchy electronics and earthy drumming is reminiscent of Khmer to a degree, the song is just alto more aggressive than anything Molvaer offered up electronics-wise. Kale on the tabla and drums really steals the show at various points though, and I found myself more interested in what he would do than Molvaer. Molvaer is solid as usual, and perhaps is the best track simply because he has already experienced such genre mixing before on his own albums. It is a solid track, though at times reminding me a bit too much of Khmer and his other outings.

The final track, ‘Remains’ has no special name attached to it as others did instrumentation wise. It is simply Laswell and Corrupt Souls child specifically as they offer up a high pitched all guns blazing DnB track. For that reason it isn’t nearly as interesting to me as other tracks are, because I am not huge on the DnB genre anyway.

The album really takes a lot out of you to listen to, and even more so to review. I am not a huge fan of the brum and bass electronic genre, the closest example being Amon Tobin who offers up enough trip hop and down tempo songs to contrast well over an album to not make it so daunting a listen. I found it hard to sit through in one, but there were moments of greatness around the place. I can imagine myself loving this were I a bigger DnB fan, however that is not the case. It is definitely one of the more interesting Laswell projects however.

TOTAL SCORE

6.5/10

- Amenta
- Panepha
– Aibi Virus

04-01-2009, 03:07 AM	#20 (permalink)
Zarko Barely Disheveled Zombie Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 1,196	Inamorata – Method Of Defiance (2007) GENRES – Drum n’ Bass, Electronic, Jazz, Dub Ta'wil - 7:56 Humanoid - 4:48 Hidden Killer - 4:55 Amenta - 6:48 Panepha - 4:44 Babylon Decoder - 5:20 Aibi-Virus - 6:41 Anti-Jazz Glitch - 6:39 Black Water - 4:28 Pattern Engine - 4:56 Aether - 5:13 Remains - 6:28 Yet another Laswell project and one of the better pure electronic based ones might I add. If you ever wanted an overly-elaborate group of ‘friends’ to assist in a DnB project, this one has them all. I will list them all at the end, but safe to say, it is one of the larger lists I have seen (I am not too big on the normal DnB scene, so I may be off a bit). The result is mix of pure DnB, some interesting over tones and some well placed beats. ‘Ta’Wil’ stars Pharoah Sanders and Submerged for the opening track of the album. Starting off with a calming sax solo, heavier and instrumentation beats are layered on the song to liven it up into what it become. The core DnB sound is the foundation to the rest of the album, with interesting additions from various artists here and there. Sanders superior sax playing takes centre stage quite a bit. A little more Laswell mixing is added later on in the piece, including some nice wind instrument samples that make it stand out a bit better than it did at the start of the song. Sanders sends the song out is awesome fashion. ‘Humanoid’ starts off as a more hard edged DnB piece with some grand guitar dub depth from Laswell himself before Buckethead offers his own piece of raw guitar strumming. The mix itself is a lot more interesting than the opening track, without any single instrument overriding another. Kondo also offers up some quality trumpet playing here and there, though not enough of it in my honest opinion. The keyboardist also adds a touch of Davis ‘In a Silent Way’ magic, which I love. ‘Hidden Killer’ offers a more distorted dub DnB base, with some unique (To me) mixing from Black Sun Empire. Haynes however, is a standout on his cornet, creating some pleasant depth along with Cosey’s psychedelic guitar lines. I enjoy the more dulled tones and distortion, more so than the other songs so far. Haynes pulls out some near robotic strings of playing, which is a solid contrast to his normal natural style of playing. ‘Amenta’ offers a more worldly and acoustic DnB base compared to the other songs so far. Much of the early drum is on small djembe, whilst the small flute like instrument is another treat. Lancaster takes full control and shakes the piece around, and along with the nice metal drums and djembe, create an earthy feeling around the song, which I find is quite rare in the genre as a whole. ‘Panepha’ introduces one of jazz’s mainstays into the project, to an awesome result. Mr’ Han** steps up to the plate on keyboard, and his impact is instantaneous. He carries that mystical ‘Silent Way’ feeling I was talking about earlier and makes it into something totally different with the DnB. His playing is eclectic, yet never feels too out of touch with the rest of the instrumentation. ‘Babylon Decoder’ is another interesting piece that molds a few pieces of the puzzle into one tower… Amit’s assistance on the mixing side of things is obvious as he creates a bubbly sort of twangy beat that Buckethead plays against with all his aggression. The piece itself becomes more hostile psychedelic, as the piece is never dragged down to earth by a heavy drum and bass base. The tones and pitch lend itself to create this spacey mood. Laswell’s bass in the background is also a nice addition over the light electronic foundation. ‘Aibi Virus’ begins with quite a few dark samples…. What sounds like someone screaming, someone tortured… It’s pretty freaky when used in conjunction with the dulled drum and bass electronics. John Zorn is present in all his normal ways, pulling out the alto sax and trying to rape your ears. There is a beautiful addition from the Masada String Trio, who rip at their violin strings, trying to fit in as much as possible. We soon hit a ‘calm’ period, where the trio start playing normally, before chaos reigns once again. Its pure noise at times, as you struggle to pick one vein of instrumentation over another. The quiet ending with the Trio once again pulling out their classical influence is a beautiful aspect. ‘Anti Jazz Glitch’ opens with Craig Taborn on his keyboard; giving the impression that perhaps the album has calmed down a bit… This is also a nice contract to the chaos that just reigned a minute ago. The keyboard stays in power throughout, as everything is seemingly altered sound wise by its existence. The keyboard never feels forced to keep up with the DnB speed, instead adding its own impact at its own rate. ‘Black Water’ is a more trip hop sound than anything else on the album. It isn’t the type of down tempo trip hop that makes you fall asleep; it keeps your attention throughout. Lancaster in particular offers up a decent change in terms of instrument tempo, and the actual drumming doesn’t try too much to detract from his performance, until they both decide to step up the pace. Haynes on cornet adds a contrast between the two wind instruments, as they try to outdo each other. ‘Pattern Engine’ is more of what we’ve heard; the DnB electronics are a bit more mechanical compared to the other pieces so far. Liebman shows off his soprano saxophone skills at times, but on the whole, there are far better tracks on the album. ‘Aether’ was the track I was really waiting for, primarily due to the addition of Nils Petter Molvaer on trumpet. The glitchy electronics and earthy drumming is reminiscent of Khmer to a degree, the song is just alto more aggressive than anything Molvaer offered up electronics-wise. Kale on the tabla and drums really steals the show at various points though, and I found myself more interested in what he would do than Molvaer. Molvaer is solid as usual, and perhaps is the best track simply because he has already experienced such genre mixing before on his own albums. It is a solid track, though at times reminding me a bit too much of Khmer and his other outings. The final track, ‘Remains’ has no special name attached to it as others did instrumentation wise. It is simply Laswell and Corrupt Souls child specifically as they offer up a high pitched all guns blazing DnB track. For that reason it isn’t nearly as interesting to me as other tracks are, because I am not huge on the DnB genre anyway. The album really takes a lot out of you to listen to, and even more so to review. I am not a huge fan of the brum and bass electronic genre, the closest example being Amon Tobin who offers up enough trip hop and down tempo songs to contrast well over an album to not make it so daunting a listen. I found it hard to sit through in one, but there were moments of greatness around the place. I can imagine myself loving this were I a bigger DnB fan, however that is not the case. It is definitely one of the more interesting Laswell projects however. TOTAL SCORE 6.5/10** - Amenta - Panepha – Aibi Virus Last edited by Zarko; 04-14-2009 at 02:23 AM.