Sacred System: Book of Exit: Dub Chamber 4

text

This is Bill Laswell's fourth visit to the cavernous chamber of dub released by the dub stalwarts at ROIR. The last featured the inclusion of Nils Petter Molvær's breathy trumpet lines, while this one features the sinewy vocals of Egigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw, who lends vocals in Amharic and English to three of the albums six tracks, the first of which appears to be a paean to her homeland, Ethiopia, while the closer is a plea to the "daughters of Jerusalem" to clean its streets of blood.

The 'Book of Exit' (does this mean that this is the last in the series?) is not bin-shaking, thunderclap dub, but rather the sensuous and spellbinding kind, doubly enhanced when Gigi caresses our ears with her "gift from God". Laswell has chosen to work in trio format this time around, just himself on bass, keyboards, and guitar, while Karsh Kale and Aiyb Dieng handle the percussion with their usual finesse. The music is focused, meditative and thoroughly enchanting. No listener is safe from its seductive power.