Material - Intonarumori (1999)

material were a band playing industrial jazz funk post punk. then they started making electro, then instrumental hip hop, then collabing with rappers and then doing a lots of other shit until this, the final album under the name material. here is a review i didn't write but seems apt.
Things sure have changed since Material (then a trio consisting of bassist/producer Bill Laswell, drummer Fred Maher and keyboardist Michael Beinhorn) released its first EP of mildly abrasive experimental art-funk in 1979. These days Beinhorn and Maher are out of the picture, and Material is just a name that Laswell gives once and a while to one of his many collaborative projects. This time out, Material is Laswell and a motley crew of rappers and DJs. The disc package is emblazoned with the defiant slogan "Rapping is still an art, " which tends to raise one's expectations somewhat. Those expectations are more or less borne out, too. As is his wont, Laswell provides instrumental settings that are dark, rhyhmically complex and bone-shakingly bass-heavy; on top of his foundational beats there are expert turntable manipulation from the likes of DXT (known to old school aficionados asGrandmaster D.ST) and phonosycographDISK, rapping by Ramm Ell Zee, Scotty Hard, Killah Priest, Flavor Flav and others, and even a cameo appearance by wispy-voiced art-pop singerLori Carson (whose "All That Future," a collaboration with funky keyboard legend Bernie Worrell, turns out to be one of the album's highlights). Flavor Flav is his typical off-the-wall self on "Burnin'," while Killah Priest gets arrythmically serious on the six-minute recitation "Temple of the Mental." Alicia Blue provides the aptly titled "Flo w," and Kool Keith weighs in with "Conspiracies," a lyrical theme that keeps returning throughout the album. The only weak point on the album comes, unfortunately, at the very end, with Ramm Ell Zee's obnoxious and stupid "Hisstory." Highly recommended overall.
now this post is too long.

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2 Responses so far.

  1. ribs says:

    this sounds really interesting, thanks!

  2. Murphey says:

    Choice posting, probably the best I've ever dl'd. +∞!

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