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    Purple Trap – Decided Already the Motionless Heart of Tranquility, Tangling the Prayer Called “I”

    Purple Trap - Decided…Already the Motionless Heart of Tranquility, Tangling the Prayer Called I

    Well, here we go again with this “Purple Trap” business. Purple Trap first appeared as the title of a 2-CD set by Fushitsusha, then re-appeared as the name of the label that released The Soul’s True Love 4-CD box set by Keiji Haino. Now, here it crops up a third time as the name of a new trio featuring Keiji Haino on guitar and vocals, Rashied Ali (John Coltrane) on drums and Bill Laswell on bass.

    Honestly, this collab turned out better than it looked on paper. The recording quality is really clear and Haino has eased back on the density of his furnace blast a bit so you can really hear what he’s up to. Rashied Ali is in fine form: listening, attacking, retreating—a perfect dome containing (and riser supporting) the sound web he finds himself in. Then there’s Bill Laswell. I’m not very familiar with his work, but here his playing is distracting or superfluous at times and nicely melding at others. I really wish he would’ve plugged an old, beat-up bass straight into a piece-of-crap amp, though, ’cause those smooth, rack mount effects units just don’t carve my ears up the way I like ’em. Maybe this meeting would’ve worked better as a duo between Haino and Ali? It should be very obvious now how much appropriate specialness Yasushi Ozawa and Jun Kosugi add to Fushitsusha.

    The two CDs in this set–housed in the much-loved slimline case–are full of the kind of placid dunes and complex foliage one would expect and maybe even ask for. Largely comprised of long-titled and long-winded screaming shard fields, mildly abstract “balladry,” droning feedback, keening guitar, subtly swinging rhythms, hot trebly licks, flocks of guitar squirrels battling distorted bass slabs, raw stabs ’n’ wail-wash with water-gurgling bass, distant reverb guitar, and plenty of mild ice skate and North Pole aurora shimmers.

    Label: Tzadik Catalog Number: TZ 7221 Format: 2-CD Packaging: Slimline double jewel case Tracks: Disc 1: 7 Disc 2: 6 Total Time: 1:30:00 Country: United States Released: 1999 Related Artists: Fushitsusha More: Forced Exposure, Official, Poison Pie, Wikipedia

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