Hashisheen-the End of Law

Bill Laswell | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 26, 1999)
• Label: Sub Rosa
• ASIN: B00000IAEW
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #478,187 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. First Reading

2. The Old Man of the Mountain

3. The Western Lands

4. The Spilled Cup

5. Marco Polo's Tale

6. Pilgrimage to Cairo

7. Castles

8. Hashish Poem

9. Sinan's Boat

10. Assassinations

11. The Mongols Destroy Alamut

12. The Divine Self

13. Morning High

14. A Quick Trip to Alamut

15. Slogans

16. Book of the Highest Initiation

17. The Lord of the Resurrection

18. Assassinations

19. Tale of the Caliph Hakem

20. The Assassins

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A psychedelic flashback to the depths of time and Asia..., September 9, 2002

By 

Takis Tz. (InYourHead) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hashisheen-the End of Law (Audio CD)

The Hashisheens were a small sect with assasination missions put together by Hasan-i-Sabbah in 1090 a.d. Using the delights of a literal Garden of Pleasures that he built where "free women" and cannabis were abound, he was literally brainwashing his troops while they were on trance and assigning them missions.
The Hashisheen were feared because of their dedication and loyalty to Hasan and because they opposed both Islamic as well as Christianic figures of the time.
In this incredible album, the original texts left behind by Hasan are read by artists such Iggy Pop, Anne Clarke or William Burroughs and Patti Smith to name but a few, while the musical layers accompanying them are a gracious mix of psychedelic dub and trip-hop (allthough it's actually an injustice to try and categorise the music here). Basically, the music serves as an eerie and often spacey ambience for the texts themselves.
The end result is impressive to say the least. Ok, this isn't an album that you would use as a background sound, but then again, the people who would buy it wouldn't have any such intention to begin with.
It's an album to listen carefully to and travel back with it. Or, it's an album to give to a good friend.
A must for serious music lovers and a must for those who can appreciate stories from the deep past that seem unreal and yet have indeed happened.
The booklet that comes with the CD is another asset: you get the texts that are read in the album plus a historical background of Hasan and his sect who had a motto as intriguing as :"nothing is true and everything is permitted".
...Great work.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Head Musick For The Black Magick Set, February 19, 2000

By 

kris darlington - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hashisheen-the End of Law (Audio CD)

A unique project, of interest to anyone who studies the underground theories of Robert Anton Wilson (mysteriously absent, hmmn....), William S. Burroughs, Aurther Rimbaud, Peter Lamborn Wilson, Hakim Bey, and many other folks who are non-coincidentally included in the cast of this strangest of all tribute records. I mean paying homage to Led Zepplin with stale cover tunes is one thing, but an N.P.R.-esque sound collage from a lot of the usual mystical terrorist set, extoling the virtues of a Moslem heretic's methods for disposing of Christian Fanatics is pretty esoteric to pretentious for anybody. Some tracks fall flat on their face, but when they do work, like Patty Smith's Morning High, it is more than a listening experience. Occasionally stiff, but contain some wonderful moments for the Dark Spirituality/Politcal fringe crowd. Probably something Mulder would listen to on the way home from the office.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great album deep influence from S. Burroughs Western Lands, August 20, 1999

By 

Giovanni Bertani "a cave diver" (Verona Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hashisheen-the End of Law (Audio CD)

A very exotic music and narrative journey into the misterious Islamic eresy of the Hashisheen. One of the most interesting works by Bill Laswell about narratives, poems and legends inspired music. The contributions by various artists reveal a interesting common ground of thinking between them. Finally the influence of S. Burroughs book "Western Lands" is clear.