Bill Laswell's second compendium of experimental breakbeat culture from New York and beyond, Valis II is a double-CD featuring everything from dirty instrumental hip-hop and dub to jungle-funk and freewheeling turntable tricknology. A lot of the usual
Laswell suspects are featured, including
Praxis,
Spectre,
Buckethead, and
Corporal Blossom (aka Greenpoint engineer
Robert Musso), but a handful of tracks by newcomers such as
SIMM,
Scanner,
Babu, and
Shinro Ohtake (together with
Boredoms frontman Yamatsuka Eye) make for an interesting collection. Like many
Laswell-related comps it's doubtful much of this will stand up, say, a year later, but until then, Valis II is a fine, varied listen. ~ Sean Cooper