World Without Rules

Paul Haslinger | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 20, 1996)
• Original Release Date: August 13, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Valley
• ASIN: B000003Z8Q
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #278,056 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wild ride, May 13, 2004

By 

J Lee Harshbarger (Ypsilanti, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: World Without Rules (Audio CD)

"World Without Rules" is a perfect title for this album, as it bends all the "rules" by mixing things together to create something different. While the sounds put it in the World Beat camp for me, it's different from other world beat albums because of its mood. World Beat albums tend to fit into one of the following types:
1) Western dance beats underneath traditional musical sounds from the world, giving these albums a feel of dancing in a club in such countries
2) Party music
3) Ambient-beat kinds of things that are good for meditative moods, background sound, or a kind of club-trance dancing

This album varies in mood, and at times it has that meditative, trance-like quality, but then next thing you know the tempo and mood changes and you're taken on a wild ride. Sometimes this ride gets so wild that it evokes screams. Now when was the last time you heard someone screaming in terror on a World Beat album? Other tribal chants sound frantic, almost making you feel like--if you were in the midst of them--"What's going to happen next? Something scary is going down."

The climax of the album is "Monkey Brain Sushi"--very wild and intense. Only 2 1/2 minutes, I wish it was longer! "World Without Rules" and "Desert Diva" are the showcase tunes of this album, seven-minute songs full of emotion and power and even quite danceable.

"Dismissal Of The Hemisphere" is nearly ambient, fronted by tribal bells and carried by female vocals. The vocals in "Rainmaker's Dream" have a dungeon echo to them, accompanied by bongo drums. "Asian Blue" uses electronically manipulated female vocals for an interesting effect, although it's dragged out too long. I had listened to this album many times before I figured out that the vocals in this song were sampled from the album's opening song. "Urban Source Code" seems a bit out of place on the album--it's jazz music, albeit certainly not mainstream jazz, and it does fit the mood of the album, but I don't think it adds to the album.

From ambient to danceable beat, from quiet to powerfully loud, from serene to terrifying, this album runs the gamut but does so in a way that is not at all disjointed. You're taken on a sonic trip on this album that matches its cover's description, "Combustible, cutting edge, avant-world pop."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A enjoyable eclectic mix of diverse musical styles, January 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: World Without Rules (Audio CD)

An impressive followup to FUTURE PRIMITIVE, which includes a solid supporting line up including Mark Isham, Nona Hendryx, S'Ange and Loren Nerell. While quite distinct from his music with Tangerine Dream, it gives us insight into the composer's interest in diverse musical styles.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sampler Society of Our Culturally Diverse Planet, March 30, 2002

By 

derJUBster (Near the Beach, Heart of Dixie) - See all my reviews

This review is from: World Without Rules (Audio CD)

In Haslinger's own words: "Music is inscribed between noise and silence, in the space of the social codification it reveals. Every code of music is rooted in the ideologies and technologies of its age, and at the same time produces them." ...

Anyone familiar with the influence electronica artist Paul Haslinger brought to the German band 'Tangerine Dream' in the mid 80s, and any serious fan of contemporary NewAge music such as that of Jonn Serrie or Michael Stearns, will find this CD to be as refreshing as it is original... The album is a 'sampler society' that captures the sounds and sometimes ancient music of our culturally diverse planet while at the same time mesmerizing us with it's flawless layering of synthesizer generated NewAge inspired renditions...

I LOVE the ambient 'space music' of my NewAge collection and can listen to it for days on end, but once in a while, a return to Earth is a welcomed change of pace... This 1996 offering by Paul Haslinger should be a serious consideration for the inclusion in anyone's library of NewAge music... His credentials as a capable solo artist are here for your inspection...

Probably not for the 'only-NewAge-curious', but more for the adept NewAge listener who realizes mood is the essence of enjoying a mix of eclectic tracks such as this collection is... Personally, I have enjoyed listening to this work-of-art over and over again...

Highly recommended for Sunday morning listening in lieu of jazz.