Search - Material, William S Burroughs :: Road to the Western Lands

This disc is a sonically advanced tribute to the late, iconoclastic writer William S. Burroughs. In 1989, Bill Laswell and his group Material constructed Seven Souls, a musical soundscape accompanied by Burroughs's distinctive voice and his surreal musings on mortality and isolation. Remixed here by Laswell and four contemporary DJ-producers, Burroughs's own words are imaginatively recontextualized into a moving electronic elegy to the vastly influential author. Expounding on the ancient Egyptian mythology of death, Burroughs is contorted under the reverential guidance of Laswell and aural technicians Talvin Singh, Spring Hill Jack, DJ Olive, and DJ Soul Slinger. By updating Material's original dub-funk-jazz fusion with studio advancements of the '90s, we are presented with a work that combines spoken word, invigorating instrumentals, and modern electronica. --Mitch Myers