Automaton – Dub Terror Exhaust

One of my favorites in my collection of about 7000 CDs. A perfect record. It was also the album that opened my ears to dub and dub-related minimalisms. Most of my collection is various types of jazz, classical music and so-called contemporary classical and back in 1995 I didn't listen to any rock/pop/funk/whatever any more. Automaton – Dub Terror Exhaust was one of the albums that forced me to take those forms seriously again. It's dub taken to extremes, seemingly super simple, skeletal rhythms + a handful of samples thrown on top like spices, but on closer inspection there is great depth and a multitude of nuances in this music. It's monumental and perfectly played. I also like the sound and mix of the album. Later Laswell albums are sometimes as good as this one, but this particular sound – bottomless bass (as always), lots of space around the instruments, but some sounds still very dry and on your face – has not really been repeated. On later dub-based albums the drum sound got much louder and closer to a kind of rock sound, but here it has almost chamber music type of genuinely acoustic feel. I love it.

This is a classic "Laswellian" ambiant dub record, roots and heavy, of traditionnal dub.
The cooperation of musicians like Gabe Katz (of Blind Idiot God) on tracks 2 & 4 and DJ Spooky (credited as "The Alchemist") on track 3, the length of the tracks (more than 10 minutes each) gives to this CD a good coherence without that the listener may have any sensation of monotony.
This CD can be considered as the volume # 0 of the four "Sacred System" albums that Laswell will later produce for ROIR records.
As for all the Strata records the CD is also released with a beautiful opaque black container.