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Review Deconstructing Havana Seems like these days the famously genre-smashing producer/bassist Bill Laswell is as inclined to manipulate source material as to build from scratch, with typically varying results. His relaxed, hip-hop-flecked Panthalassa remixes of Miles Davis were more successful as polemic (e.g. the tapes from which Teo Macero constructed Bitches Brew should be fair game for other producers) than as further illumination of Davis' muse. But this project, utilizing Cuban "studio, home, and street" recordings featuring singer Raul Planas, percussionist Tata Guines, pianist Frank Emilio and others, holds up well through repeated listening for more than its interesting concept.It also benefits from a narrower than usual focus - with an eye for gleeful juxtaposition that rivals John Zorn, Laswell's output occasionally suffers from a lack of depth caused by his propensity for flashy editing and stylistic dillanteism.No matter their original quality, the source materials Laswell uses for Imaginary Cuba now have a haunting, distant, almost Alan Lomax-like quality. Stripped-down polyrhythms fade in and out behind disembodied chanting and echoing, melodic snippets of folk songs. Occasionally Laswell's trademark subharmonic bass rumbles in the distance like slow-motion explosions or organic dub-production tricks tweak an already ghostly sound into further alien ambience. The bulk of Imaginary Cuba continues layering these basic, effective units in gentle ebbs and flows before finishing with a two-song coda - a jarring misstep of stacked clattering percussion tracks that too much resembles a run-of-the-mill drum 'n' bass workout, and a final exercise in pure, thick ambient sound.--Patrick Hughes, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc. -- From Jazziz
