Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis)

Praxis | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 8, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Axiom
• ASIN: B000000GAR
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #149,569 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my ALL TIME favorite albums, May 2, 2007

By 

Mr. Richard K. Weems "emperor_weems" (Fair Lawn, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) (Audio CD)

This album is not only a SuperGroup effort of the best kind, but a masterclass in instrumental music. Take Funkadelic alums Bernie Worrell and Bootsy Collins, add Primus drummer Brain and sprinkle the mad genius of renegade guitar god Buckethead, and bake it in the Bill Laswell Low-End Bake Oven, and you've got a ThrashJazzFunkMetalScratch masterpiece, almost good enough for the whole family.

This album has most certainly withstood the test of time--I've owned my copy since just a few months after its release, and it has remained a mainstay of my personal rotation. There is a great sense of play and humor in juxtapositions of "Blast," a brief but numbing thrash assault, to "War Machine Dub," a slow-as-HELL bassy barrage. The jam-funk of "Animal Behavior," the only song on here with any vocals to speak of, is a centerpiece of this band's efforts and a fun tune, but these guys also give you tracks like "The Interworld and the New Innocence" just to show you that they are also master musicians who can put together a song like nobody else's business, songs that use music to move you through an experience as satisfying as any ingenius little turn of phrase or neat rhyme. Other incarnations of Praxis have included Laswell himself coming to the fore on bass, or John Zorn on alto, or Yamatsuka Eye pelting out some gutteral screams, but this version is the most flawless one, free of defect, and creating what should be (if there is truly any justice in the universe) one of the seminal albums of the late 20th century--music that does not fit easily into any one genre but actively plays with them all, mixing them together into an incredible whole that reminds us that music is a pure form, existing outside of schools of thought and mere labels, and that it is transcendent of this world into a spiritual plane. Just swing along with this one, and it will take you to new heights.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Badass, February 11, 2005

By 

Scott (MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) (Audio CD)

This album was one of my first introductions to Buckethead. I distinctly remember listening to this and questioning everything else that I listened to, and you'll probably do the same. Buckethead seems to get most of the attention in the reviews here but really everyone featured on Transmutation is at the top of their game. If you're a fan of any of the five musicians on here (and Bill Laswell too) this is a must-have. In fact there's enough genres covered on here to satisfy almost anyone. Chaos IS never-ending as the liner notes say, and this is one chaotic masterpiece you'll be begging not to end.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Otherworldy, Intense Future Fusion, September 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) (Audio CD)

This is one of the most intense and mind-blowing fusion albums of all time. No, it's not jazz-rock or irrelevant genres like neo-classical. It's a fusion of where all the modern RELEVANT genres are heading in the future. Bill Laswell has masterfully assembled a group of incredible musicians and produced an album of uncompromising vision of modern music's future. Elements of funk, dub, electronica, hip-hop, trance, trip-hop, techno, rock, metal, thrash, shred, and free-form jazz all intermingle in ways never heard before or since. Everyone is superb on this album, but Buckethead stands out as the true differentiator. This guy's speed is just insane, but it's never speed for speed's sake. His playing always fits the context of the music and that's what's so refreshing. The album sounds today (nearly a decade later) as vital and cutting-edge as it did when it first came out. This is a must-have album for all serious adventurous music fans who want to be challenged about their assumptions about music.