Possession: African Dub

Off World One (Sub Meta)
by Lex Marburger

What much of both funk and ambient miss is simple groove. Funk nowadays has been skewed too far into James Brown territory, and forgets Funkadelic’s first album, which relied on a feeling more than a sound. It had a basic simplicity that overwhelmed any musical style that crossed its path, enveloping it in the fundamental groove. Ambient has gone beyond simple, and tried to transcend rhythm, giving its songs a basic shape without an inner pattern. What both have missed has tucked itself away in a dark cave known as Dub.

Archeologist Bill Laswell delved into these caves and came back with Possession: African Dub. With a stretched out, completely relaxed time frame, Laswell and three other musicians create atmospheres on Off World One that drive the spirit and the mind into new territory. Given the freedom of five and seven-minute songs, they ride the infinite beat to the horizon, submitting basslines deeper than the greatest spiritual manifesto. They delve into the emanation of repetition, and build castles from simplicity. The beats and sparse melodies snare listeners into a gentle sway of the mind and body. Only one completely disassociated from any direct communication to their soul will not understand, instinctively, that this music is related to human evolution, that both links the past and DNA maps of the future are contained within the music presented here. These are songs for the opening of Heaven.