Jah Wobble's Solaris - Live in Concert [Import]

Jah Wobble | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 28, 2002)
• Original Release Date: 2002
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: 30 Hertz Records
• ASIN: B000066CQ6
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #457,482 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Born Out of a Chance Collaboration Between Jah Wobble and American Ambient/Neo-classical Composer Harold Budd, Solaris Brings Together an Extraordinary Line Up of Musicians to Perform Improvised Modal Adventures in Dub, Jazz and Ambient Music. They Give Audiences a Rare and Unique Opportunity to Hear and Watch a Group of Highly Eclectic Musicians who Are Pioneers in their Field, Perform Together as a Band for the First Time.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb!, May 13, 2003

By 

Fortitudo Dei (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jah Wobble's Solaris - Live in Concert (Audio CD)

This first caught my eye as it featured some of my favourite musicians from the past 30 years (unexpectedly) together - Jah Wobble, Harold Budd, Jaki Leibezeit, Bill Laswell and Graham Haynes - each of whom add their own distinctive touches in this thoroughly satisfying "jam". This remarkable collaboration is taken from live concert recordings of 4 lengthy improvised pieces. Different structural elements come, go, and occasionally fly off on a tangent, but are always brought back to earth by Leibezeit's distinctive metronomic beats and Laswell's driving bass rifts. Grahame Haynes lays down washes of heavily delayed cornet over much of the opening track. The sound reminded me a little of John Hassell's experimental trumpet pieces, but more so of Throbbing Gristle's Cosi Fanny Tutte's cornet playing on "Heathen Earth". In fact at times I imagined that this could be what TG might sound like if they had developed their playing skills over the past two decades, and then got together for a 20th anniversary reunion concert (now there's an idea!). Most surprising is Harold Budd contribution on piano and keyboards. A musician which until now I have generally considered to composer in the "ambient" sphere, assaults his equipment to produce a wild range of tones, buzzes and squawks. Laswell's bass and Haynes's cornet are also heavily modulated at times, producing the kind of satisfying warm sound that comes when "real" instruments collide with "live" electronics in a raw, somewhat unpredictable fashion. Though I suspect these improvised electronic modulations were produced on suitably modern gear, I have a mental image in my head of a stage filled with tape delay machines, buzzing tube amps, and 1970's-era modular analogue synthesisers stitched together with a tangle of patch leads. Though Wobble was the instigator of this project, he seems happy to sit in the background, providing a deep unobtrusive bass which the other musicians work around, almost like a tamboura player grounding a raga during a Indian classical music performance.
A must for anyone who loves the German group "Can" - or simply hearing five superb, highly accomplished and innovative musicians improvise together in a live situation.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Stuff, March 22, 2005

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Scott McFarland (Manassas, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jah Wobble's Solaris - Live in Concert (Audio CD)

You expect a lot, given the players' credentials, and it's delivered here. Can comes to mind. The music mixes low-end dub thud and repetitive rhythm with floating psyched-out noise like the best of "space rock" from any era. All the players' personalities are in there. What a great record.

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply Spaced!, October 12, 2009

By 

Lost Johnny (China) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jah Wobble's Solaris - Live in Concert (Audio CD)

Brilliant album. I didn't take to it the first time I listened to it but the second time it got me! Dub meets the avant garde and space rock. Low frequencies.... This is stellar line up. Everybody does their bit in good time.