Automaton
Dub Terror Exhaust
Strata 1994

01. Astral Altar (The Gateway of Legba)
02. Asiyah Dub (Blinding the Starry Eyes of God)
03. The Terran Invasion of Alpha Centauri Year 2794
04. The Black Meat (Deconstruction of the Bebel-Tower of Reason)

Bassist, composer, producer, and big "jack-of-all-trades" Bill Laswell has been a consistent presence in last decade's growing dub scene, and if he ever had one major talent, it's knowing when to say when. Forever divided between several projects - not all of them equally successful, as rightfully pointed out, but this particular dub-filled adventure should be amongst the ones that aged the best. It's about as elemental as can be - big fat dub bass, Sly Dunbar on drums, a young DJ Spooky (here credited as "The Alchemist") on turntables and former Blind Idiot God member Gabe Katz on whatever is left. The results - minimal but still very dope and heavy. DTE is just that - ancient repetitiveness with a futuristic sound, because of the depth, the space, the mystery. It also features some history there: 'The Terran Invasion...' was the first ambient-dub track I've heard and it blew me away - hard to imagine any artists now having the impact with one track that they had with that. So effective.

Here's a few words from the man B.L. himself:

«Whether it's just the size of the low end, the minimalist lines underneath, the rhythmic ideas, or the tone, I find dub influencing a lot of things that have nothing to do with the genre. I hope dub becomes a vital influence on other areas, in the same way hip-hop is influencing other styles; that would make them a little freer and less predictable. It's going to take genres like dub to attack other pop sensibilities».

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