Customer Reviews

Hear No Evil

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

BILL LASWELL Hear No Evil Hear No Evil originally released in 1988, marked one of the truly world fusion creations. The original CD is remastered, and a second full length CD of two extended mix translations were created especially for Meta Records. "To realize Hear No Evil, bassist/super-producer Bill Laswell tapped a group of world-class musicians. The divergent virtuosity of such aces as violinist L. Shankar, guitarist Nicky Skopelitis, and percussionist Aiyb Dieng blend seamlessly under the leader's acute sense of direction. 'Assassin' hints of near-Eastern desolation á la Led Zeppelin's 'Kashmir,' but most of the album follows the rustic grooves of 'Lost Roads'....the second coming of Hear No Evil' is all good..." -Billboard Magazine, Jan. 2000

The Bill board review is spot on. The remastering on this is excellent. I had the original CD since it was released on Virgin in 1988 and the difference is great between the two. The texture and atmosphere on this is so much better and the soundstage is clean and wide, easy to pick out the playing and really appreciate what Laswell and friends accomplished here.

I bought the original version of this album when it first came out and it quickly became one of my favorite instrumental albums. World Music, Trance, New Age, Electronica....."Hear No Evil" is all these things but would be hard to classify as any one of them. Extremely listenable, it holds up well after hundreds of hours which I surely must have accumulated by now.

If you never checked it out before (or even if you have as I can attest), this is a great time to do so with this remaster. Not only does the original album sound better than ever, the second disc has a reimagining of two pieces that sound phenomenal accompanying the original album; neither too unlike the original tracks to sound jarring nor too similar to sound redundant.