Sopko/LasweII/Pridgen: Sopko/LasweIl/Pridgen

Rating: ★★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Thomas Pridgen (d)
Hamir Atwal (perc)
Mike Sopko (g)
Bill Laswell (b)
Martin Dosh (ky)
Michael Lewis (t)
Joshua Smith (s)

Label:

self-released

March/2016

RecordDate:

Jan 2014

This here’s some heavy, heavy monstrous reptilian fusion, with bass master Laswell carrying the genes over from his Last Exit and Massacre days for a deliciously potent case of the down’n’dirty dubby Beefhearts. While the wondrously becalming ‘Daybreak’ and the spidery Gastr del Sol-like acoustics of ‘Grazin’ graciously depart from the metropolis- munching template of its paternity, there’s so much here providing a bombastic boon for those still sweating their undies over last year’s Iron Path reissue. Bandleader Mike Sopko’s style might not be quite as idiosyncratic as Sonny Sharrock’s (whose is?), but his diffuse delivery is inventive and absorbing throughout, while his gargantuan opening riff on ‘Praxis’ (the title’s a dead giveaway) could be Buckethead at his most fabulously goofy, presaging an alternate retro-future collapse to a swarm of belligerent digital locusts. There’s said to be another consignment of this stuff already in the tank. Yippee! Quick, someone fetch me a siphon pump.

Follow us

Jazzwise Print

  • Latest print issues

From £5.83 / month

Subscribe

Jazzwise Digital Club

  • Latest digital issues
  • Digital archive since 1997
  • Download tracks from bonus compilation albums during the year
  • Reviews Database access

From £7.42 / month

Subscribe

Subscribe from only £5.83

Never miss an issue of the UK's biggest selling jazz magazine.

Subscribe

View the Current
Issue

Take a peek inside the latest issue of Jazzwise magazine.

Find out more