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Title: Into the Wilderness
Review: 4+ Stars.This was my first taste of Greek guitarist Nicky Skopelitis' music (and producer Bill Laswell's trademark funky world/dub/trance sound), when it came out in '93, and although I have since listened to everything I can find of Skopelitis', this is still my favorite. The music is rich in strong and funky rhythms, mostly simple grooves, with interesting, intriguingly varied guitar interspersed throughout. But what makes it remarkable is the accompaniment by a veritable who's who of World Music's best - Ziggy Modeliste, Jaki Liebzeit, Jah Wobble, Bill Laswell, Zakir Hussain, Guilherme Franco, Aiyb Dieng, Foday Musa Suso, Bachir Attar, Simon Shaheen, and Amina Claudine Myers. (Lots of potential muse-ical directions to explore with these folks!)Overall this is very similar to other stuff Laswell has produced (as Material), with the same kind of trippy yet earthy sound and instrumentation, but it's the most consistent and satisfying I've heard.
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