Music Arcades: Miles Davis/Bill Laswell: Panthalassa - The Music of Miles Davis 1969-1974

This entry should be a kind of tribute to Teo Macero, who died last Tuesday. For it was Macero's work with Miles Davis during the era that produced the recordings used on this album that is often credited as being a major part of their innovation. From memory, I think it was in the sleevenotes to On Land who credited Macero with creating a sense of space in music that influenced his own ambient style.

When I got Panthalassa for Christmas in 1999, I didn't know Miles' work well enough to have any idea what Bill Laswell had done to it. Eight years on, I'm still no expert with trainspotter track recall but I at least recognise several of the pieces, and can hear where Laswell has re-Macero-ed Macero's originals, occasionally adding new drones and other elements. It's quite subtle, certainly respectful, and you could say that Laswell has simply refracted the Miles tracks through a 1990s sensibility. But there's nothing wrong with that in principle, and Laswell — a fellow-traveller and ex-collaborator with Eno — was a natural person to do it. Here's a detailed article on his approach, which I haven't read. Whatever; I like the results.

But, blimey, when you add this to the The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions, The Complete on the Corner Sessions, The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions and all the live albums, that's a hell of a lot of late '60s/early '70s Miles you're looking at if you're a fan. Even Panthalassa itself was remixed, but I drew the line before that.

This is the second of the two pre-recorded mini-discs I got, the first having been Dead Bees on a Cake. I remember the estimable Robin Jeeps predicting how the spread of these discs was emulating the increasing pervasiveness of CDs ten to fifteen years earlier… It's an unlovely format. Those who find CDs pokey and clinical would find mini-discs more pokey and clinical.