by Bret Love
Though few in the U.S. have noticed, bassist/producer Bill Laswell has quietly developed into the greatest American progenitor of the ambient sound pioneered by Brian Eno, fusing it with elements of dub, funk, and world music forms to expand the genre's boundaries. For the first release from his Divination project, Laswell enlisted the aid of frequent collaborators like avant-garde Chinese vocalist Liu Sola and guitarists Nicky Skopelitis and Buckethead to concoct a trippy eight-song excursion into the outer limits of ambient sound. Deep, almost subterranean basslines are layered with psychedelic waves of spacey dub effects, casting a droning spell of enchantment that hypnotizes the listener with its swirling, intoxicating brew. An irresistible experiment in extreme ambient dub.