February 1997

Today Various Artists Axiom Dub - Mysteries of Creation Axiom 524 313-3 Bill Laswell is a man of many ideas, not all of them maybe the best. Unfortunately, he's released too many of them. But once in a blue while, there's a real gem unveiled. Mysteries of Creation is definetly one of the latter. Dub they say and dub they do. Well-known names like Mad Professor, Sly and Robbie, The Orb, Dub Syndicate. Not so well-known like Techno Animal, DJ Spooky, New Kingdom, Scarab. Great stuff from almost everyone involved. The turkeys are few and far between, but what the h*ll? There's a skip button on every remote. Exercise your fingers, not only your brain!

Yesterday JJ Cale Naturally Mercury 830 042-2 Lots of people think that Eric Clapton wrote Cocaine and After Midnight. Many even believe he wrote I Shot the Sheriff. I hope you're not one of them. But if you are, let me tell you: the one and only JJ Cale is the author of the first two. Who wrote the third is for me to know and you to find out... Grandpa Cale is the master of - well, let's call it swamp country. It sounds as if he gathered a few musicians on his front porch. In fact, he did that on a few occasions down the road (he's now recorded 12 albums). Laid back is only the first name. All through the sixties JJ Cale was a studio musician in Nashville, but on the side he wrote his own songs. Naturally was his first solo album, recorded in 1970 and 1971 and released in 1972. I first heard it in the summer of 1973 and it hardly left my turntable until I got busted that autumn. These days I come back to it now and again, always pleasantly surprised of how well it has stood up against that dreaded T.I.M.E. syndrome.