Comments for Material, Memory Serves

This has a vicious undertow (Laswell & Maher) topped of with a veritable army of post-Ornette skronk on top (Fred Frith and Sonny Sharrock, among others). At the time this was a pretty startling cross-pollination of genres. Today the criticism that it''s cold and hard seems true to me, but it''s still a pretty impressive collection of groove.

Sounds kind of dated with programmed beats and 80`s synthesizerssounds. Unlike other Material projects which oriented towards theexotic side of things, Memory Serves was like a hillbilly recordswith breakdance beats. Some of the cuts, however, was in the veinsof New Jack Swing (ala One Down), adding the confusion is that the rests of the recording`s are made up of samples like a turntable artists would do (eg Otomo Yoshihide). Kind of groovy but never quiteable to grab the listener.