Outland 1

This is the first of five collaborative albums made by bassist/producer Bill Laswell and synthesist/producer Pete Namlook under the title Outland. It consists of one hourlong track titled “From the Earth to the Ceiling,” though the track is subdivided into twelve sections. (The divisions are inaudible unless you buy the album digitally, in which case there will be brief but distracting moments of silence between them.) The mood is dark and haunting; the first few tracks bring to mind an enormous subterranean creature slowly waking up, accompanied by the world’s largest didjeridoo. Later the mood gets a bit lighter, but that initial sense of foreboding never fully lifts.