* Bill Laswell

EMERALD AETHER: SHAPE SHIFTING

(Shanachie)

Over the past few years, über-producer Bill Laswell has unleashed his "reconstruction and mix translation" methods on reggae, jazz fusion, and Cuban field recordings. But on his latest remix effort -- which uses Irish music as the source material -- his crystalline digital methods begin to lose their luster. At worst, Emerald Aether is just flat-out wack: the addition of turntable cuts and chunky hip-hop beats to Karan Casey's a cappella singing on "The Labouring Man's Daughter" is a serious offense. Most tracks just receive a pleasant ambient washing of bubbles, gurgles, and hisses that, depending on your point of view, are incredibly soothing or suspect.

The best of Laswell's "mix translation" efforts have approached the material with a set of sonic rules. On his Bob Marley dub remix he removed Marley's voice from the entire disc; for the Miles Davis project he simply focused on cleaning the muddy masters. Emerald Aether could've used some of that careful planning, because it sounds more like a new-age advertisement for Shanachie's Celtic catalogue than like serious electronic music.

-- Michael Endelman