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Re: my first bad review/ALBUM inquery (Steve L.)
Way to go Steve!
In a message dated 11/27/02 9:06:53 AM, steve@steve-lawson.co.uk writes:
>There are certain people whose take on what I do helps me to
>see what I'm doing - there's a review of my first album up at
>www.krimson-news.com in Sid Smith's diary entry at the moment
Well, since you won't post the review yourself so everyone can read it
without going and hunting for it -- I will (hope you don't mind).
From Sid Smith at: http://diaries.krimson-news.com/SidSmith.shtml
Sunday, November 24 2002
Listening To . . . two albums which are worlds apart but have much in
common.
And Nothing But the Bass by Steve Lawson
Pillow Mountain Records
On Some Road by Remco Helbers.
Edition Blue
The bass (acoustic or electric) is one of my favourite instruments.
Top
Ten bassists? Oh , I’d have to think about it but I guess Pastorius
has
to be up there because of his singular role in upturning the
applecart
and pushing at the boundaries. Roy Babbington, Miroslav Vitous, Tony
Levin, Harry Miller and Hugh Hopper would also be keeping him
company.
On another day, you'd find me including people like Bill MacCormick
(Quiet Sun, 801, Random Hold), Eberhard Weber, Fred T Baker (best
known for his work with Phil Miller’s In Cahoots) and most
recently,
Steve Lawson.
[All good company huh?]
I came across Steve when he played solo bass (with looping
technology)
on the 21st Century Schizoid Band's recent tour. Blessed with a sunny
disposition and prodigious digits, Lawson's music is strong on melody
and short on any gratuitous showing-off.
As well as being a track of the album, The Virtue Of The Small, might
also
describe a personal and business manifesto. By spending a lot of time
out on the road - often playing the graveyard support slot as people
find
their seats, etc., - Lawson knows the necessity and value of keeping
things simple and direct.
Consequently, much of the music on this live CD is concerned with
mood-setting and exposition without much in the way of obtrusive
window-dressing. The jaunty interplay of The Inner Game or the
arcing,
haunting whale-song soliloquies of Drifting are particularly
rewarding,
as is the utterly charming Blue Sticks, which cheekily weaves Lionel
Bart’s Fings Aint Wot They Used To Be and Blue Moon into the fabric
of this one-man travelogue.
Not quite nothing but the bass, Steve is joined by pianist, Jez Carr
on
Bittersweet, for a Zawinul-esque excursion which broadens the pallete
of the album, although it’s the cryptic final track, Pillow
Mountain,
where
the cosy and personable tete a tete is replaced with an altogether
more
ruminative discourse which emanates from quivering shrouds of
restrained and terse electronica.
Steve seems to be the very embodiment of what Robert Fripp meant
all those years ago, when he talked about the future belonging to
small,
mobile, intelligent units. Lawson is not only out on the road most
nights
of the week but cannily extending his niche market via the internet.
More
power to his elbow I say. Check him out on
http://www.steve-lawson.co.uk.
So Steve . . . you're comming to the states for a tour when? Just a couple
of months from now?
Best regards,
tEd ® kiLLiAn