The histories of Bill Laswell and Hoppy Kamiyama are long and florid affairs, filled with innumerable records and equally as infinite mentions of their work as producers. Kamiyama and Laswell are old pros, consummate musicians who came together in a brief collision with percussionist Kiyohiko Semba to record the avant-jazz fusion record, A Navel City/No One Is There. The result is a wild synergy, a free-form funk ride across landscapes both rhythmic and ambient, crystalline and volcanic.
Kamiyama’s piano spars with Semba’s cymbal and percussion in “Todes Fuge” while Laswell’s bass exudes bell tones, unfolding in a three-part polyrhythm that sounds like wind through a field of wind chimes. Semba’s drum work is the highlight of “Sospirando,” a driving pulse which draws Laswell’s aquatic bass and Kamiyama’s breathlessly squirting synthesizers in its wake. “Desert,” the thirteen minute high country excursion, is dappled with ambient heat mirages and sandstorms of complex percussive melodies driven across the dusty envelope by Semba’s tireless hands. “Sad Emission” hurtles along with even more intricate rhythms and noises, shooting through numerous terrains of sound during its sixteen minute run. By the time it winds up in a cataclysmic rush of sound and voice, you’ve been given a serious free funk transfusion. The closer, “Parrot Fashions,” rings with ambient tones, Japanese guitar, bells and bird song, a fusion version of a climb up the wilderness path to the top of Mt. Fuji.
Uber-producers Laswell and Kamiyama spend a great deal of their time tweaking and massaging the work of others. It is great to hear them get a chance to feed from each other’s energy in a highly collaborative, free-form environment. Probably recorded in an afternoon’s massive recording session, A Navel City/No One Is There is a well polished amalgamation of Laswell’s signature bass rhythms and Kamiyama’s trademark synthesizer melodies, wound together by the relentless and exacting percussion of Semba. Excellent work.
A Navel City/No One Is There is out now on Kanpai Records.
