Panthalassa: The Music Of Miles Davis 1969-1974 Reconstruction & Mix Translation By Bill Laswell

Starting with music from In a Silent Way, Laswell lets the songs play just as they did on the original album, condensed slightly. This leads to a 30-minute suite (the two tracks in the middle of the disc) that draw from On the Corner, Get Up With It, and Agharta. Laswell has added a little dub to the mix, enhancing it in a subtle way. The CD ends with 14 minutes from Davis' incredible "He Loved Him Madly" (the first track on Get Up With It). The original is 32 minutes of perfection. This excerpt will make you want to hear it all.

The only thing missing from this album is music from Bitches Brew, but here again Laswell is way ahead of everyone. Bitches Brew is the Davis album you probably already have (and love) if you were thinking about buying this, so there's no need to sample it here. This is an amazing CD. It made me want to hear more Miles Davis --- and more Laswell albums, too.

But after listening to it, I found that Laswell did Miles' funk/fusion justice and enhanced it a bit, bringing out the layered textures that are not easily noticed on the original recordings. His rendition of the insane "Rated X," arguably Miles' most Stockhausen-esque piece of avant garde is amazing.

Along with the entertaining "Remixes" lp, Laswell does a stand-up job and hopefully has tuened Miles' music on to a new generation.

Miles Davis - Panthalassa -the music of Miles Davis1969-74, reconstruction and mix translation by Bill Laswell.

Overall, I believe Miles Davis would have been quite happy with these 'reconstructions' by Bill Laswell. Sticking pretty much to the original material, what Laswell does is tighten up the overall sound so that it ends up kicking butt big time. Miles' electric period alienated a lot of his old time listeners because it was a 'new' sound for him,because it was radical and somewhat experimental and reflected what was happening at the time, from flower power to funkster Sly and The Family Stone to the Black Panther movement and a lot more in between. The original recordings that these extracts came from were all produced by Teo Macero who basically let the tape run and worried about cleaning it all up and editing later on. Not having discovered Davis' music till I was in my late twenties, I never really listened to Bitches Brew or In A Silent Way till much later in life, preferring the big orchestral sound and arrangements of Gil Evans to the above. I had been exposed to albums like Get Up With It but never really understood or appreciated what MD was doing. These days I have more time and patience for this sort of thing and consequently am hearing these recordings anew. When I look at the line up of talent MD was employing I'm in awe because these guys were all to end up becoming big names in the music industry, if they weren't already. So Uncle Bill has gone in and reedited what were already classic albums and just cleaned up the sound to make it even more listen able, more than likely in the process generating a fresh interest in MD's music for a new audience. Laswell has created three medleys plus a revamped version of He Loved Him Madly, which for me is the highlight of this album. Laswell has a real ear for ambience and he uses his talents to best effect on a track like Ellington's He Loved Him Madly ,which in the final stage becomes very hypnotic through the use of repetition and loops. Miles sounds great and I think everyone must have had a good time when this was being recorded. The problem with a lot of Miles' music from around this time was it was somewhat abstract and consequently unlistenable except for the die hard followers. It wasn't till Marcus Miller became involved that I started listening again and espousing the virtues of Miles' music. Over the years I have grown to reestablish my respect for the man as a musician as a distinct voice in black American jazz. Laswell no doubt feels this way himself, thus these re-translations. This particular recording will no doubt reestablish the fact that Laswell is one of the leading producers in the industry these days and a force to be reckoned with. It will be interesting to listen to the originals again but since they are in storage for the moment this will do nicely.