Archival Music from Bill Laswell

This track is archival, but it also serves as a current, potent little reminder of what’s going on at bassist-producer Bill Laswell’s quickly expanding Bandcamp page. The track dates from 1993, recorded the year prior for Japanese drummer Hideo Yamaki’s album Shadow Run. It popped up today on Laswell’s Bandcamp outpost. Like many Laswell productions, Shadow Run appears under an individual’s name, but that name stands in for a wide swath of favorite session players, among them Foday Musa Suso (kora, vocals), Bernie Worrell (organ), Toshinori Kondo (trumpet), and Laswell himself. And, on this track, the great Ginger Baker. The track, “Hoisasa,” is a duo of Baker and Yamaki going at their kits, sometimes in swinging unison, often in swaggering counterpoint. It’s a force of nature collaboration. Two other releases under Yamaki’s name also appear on Laswell’s page, both duos with Laswell himself.