Praxis was the name of an ever-changing musical project, led by prolific producer
Bill LaswellBill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....
. Praxis combine elements of different musical genres such as funk, jazz,
hip-hopHip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
and
heavy metalHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
into highly improvised music. First appearing in 1992 with the critically acclaimed
Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis)Note: Track 8 starts out with the Giant Robot theme, that is also featured on Buckethead's Bucketheadland album. The track also contains a version of one of the many themes Akira Ifukube wrote for Toho production's Godzilla films.-Personnel:...
, Laswell, guitarist
BucketheadBrian Carroll , better known by his stage name Buckethead, is a guitarist and multi instrumentalist who has worked within several genres of music. He has released 34 studio albums, four special releases and one EP. He has performed on over 50 more albums by other artists...
, keyboardist
Bernie WorrellGeorge Bernard "Bernie" Worrell, Jr. is an American keyboardist and composer best known as a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic and for his work with Talking Heads. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic...
and drummer
BrainBryan "Brain" Mantia is a contemporary rock drummer. He has played with bands like Primus, Guns N' Roses, Praxis and Godflesh, and with other popular performers such as Tom Waits, Bill Laswell, Bootsy Collins and Buckethead...
have defined the direction of the band over the last 15 years.
The group worked with many other artists such as
Serj TankianSerj Tankian is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American singer–songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, record producer, poet, and political activist...
from
System of a DownSystem of a Down, also known by the acronym SOAD and often shortened to System, is a rock band from Southern California. The band was formed in 1994. It consists of Serj Tankian , Daron Malakian , Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan...
,
Iggy PopIggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
, and
Les ClaypoolLeslie Edward "Les" Claypool is an American musician and writer, best known as the lead vocalist and bassist in the band Primus. Claypool's playing style on the electric bass mixes tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends and slapping.Claypool has also self produced and engineered his...
of
PrimusPrimus is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, currently composed of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry "Ler" LaLonde and drummer Jay Lane. Primus originally formed in 1984 with Claypool and guitarist Todd Huth, later joined by Lane, though the latter two departed...
fame.
Early days
Bill Laswell initially used the name Praxis for an experimental solo EP recorded for
Celluloid RecordsCelluloid Records, a French/American record label, founded by Jean Georgakarakos operated from 1976 to 1989 in New York, and produced a series of eclectic and ground-breaking releases, particularly in the early to late 1980s, largely under the auspices of de facto in-house producer Bill...
in 1984, simply named "1984".
1992–1996
The band's debut album,
Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis)Note: Track 8 starts out with the Giant Robot theme, that is also featured on Buckethead's Bucketheadland album. The track also contains a version of one of the many themes Akira Ifukube wrote for Toho production's Godzilla films.-Personnel:...
, released in 1992 was well received by critics and spawned the group's only single, the
Bootsy CollinsWilliam Earl "Bootsy" Collins is an American funk bassist, singer, and songwriter.Rising to prominence with James Brown in the late 1960s, and with Parliament-Funkadelic in the '70s, Collins's driving bass guitar and humorous vocals established him as one of the leading names in funk...
sung "Animal Behavior".
Their next studio album,
Sacrifist- Personnel :*Praxis:**Bootsy Collins - bass and vocals**Buckethead - guitar**Brain - drums**Bernie Worrell - keyboards**Mick Harris - vocals**Yamatsuka Eye - vocals**John Zorn - saxophone**Bill Laswell - bass...
, released two years later featured
John ZornJohn Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
and
Mick HarrisMick Harris commonly known and credited both as Mick Harris or occasionally M.J. Harris, is an English musician....
from
PainkillerPainkiller is a band originally formed in 1991. Their style can be described as a mix of avant-garde jazz and grindcore; later albums also incorporated elements of ambient and dub....
. The obscure mix of
death metalDeath metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
was not as acclaimed as their debut.
The same year saw the album
MetatronMetatron is the third album of Bill Laswell and Buckethead's project Praxis. This album concentrates on the core band of Buckethead, Brain and Laswell, rather than featuring a large number of guests like the earlier albums....
which included the song "Wake the Dead".
In 1996 the band toured Europe and recorded two live albums called
Live in PolandLive in Poland is the first live album made by the supergroup Praxis, released in 1997.This album contains songs of their last two albums Metatron and Sacrifist, one song from Buckethead's album Giant Robot plus "Tarab" first heard on Nicky Skopelitis' album Ekstasis recorded June 29, 1996.The...
and
Transmutation LiveTransmutation Live is a live album compiled from a live Praxis performance in Zurich, Switzerland, in the summer of 1996. Transmutation Live features an incarnation of Bill Laswell's free jazz/rock/hip-hop collective...
containing material from shows in
ZurichZurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
and
WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. Both albums featured members of the
Invisibl Skratch PiklzThe Invisibl Skratch Piklz were a group of Americans of Filipino Ancestry turntablists.The members of the group were originally hip-hop DJs, who were among the pioneers of the turntablism movement in the 1990s; turntablists create musical pieces by mixing samples from records, by using multiple...
. After the shows, the project broke up.
1997–2004
In 1997,
Bill LaswellBill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....
re-released his
MaterialFor the rock band of the same name, see The MaterialMaterial is a musical group formed in 1979 and led by bass guitarist Bill Laswell.-1978-82: The band:...
EP
1984-Personnel:*Praxis:**Bill Laswell: DMX, turntable, records, tapes, shortwave radio* Recorded and mixed at Evergreen Studio* Engineered by Rob Stevens* Composed, arranged and produced by Bill Laswell* Mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk-External links:*...
under the project's name. This was followed by the album
MoldMold is the fourth studio album made by the supergroup Praxis, released in 1998.-Track listing:-Personnel:* Praxis:** Alex Haas - Keyboards, Producer, Engineer, Mixing** Bill Laswell - Bass, Scratching, Producer** Pat Thrall - Guitar...
with Laswell introducing
Pat ThrallPat Thrall is an American rock guitarist. Thrall is a native of the San Francisco area, and began his recording career in 1972. He played guiatar,vocals and percussion with the group Cookin Mama album: new day , that also had this brother Preston Thrall on percussion.Thrall has worked with former...
, Peter Wetherbee and Alex Haas instead of
BucketheadBrian Carroll , better known by his stage name Buckethead, is a guitarist and multi instrumentalist who has worked within several genres of music. He has released 34 studio albums, four special releases and one EP. He has performed on over 50 more albums by other artists...
,
Bryan MantiaBryan "Brain" Mantia is a contemporary rock drummer. He has played with bands like Primus, Guns N' Roses, Praxis and Godflesh, and with other popular performers such as Tom Waits, Bill Laswell, Bootsy Collins and Buckethead...
and
Bernie WorrellGeorge Bernard "Bernie" Worrell, Jr. is an American keyboardist and composer best known as a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic and for his work with Talking Heads. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic...
respectively. In 1998, Laswell contributed "Dreadnot" to the compilation
Abstract Depressionism.
In the same year a first compilation album also containing two songs from the
Death Cube KBrian Carroll , better known by his stage name Buckethead, is a guitarist and multi instrumentalist who has worked within several genres of music. He has released 34 studio albums, four special releases and one EP. He has performed on over 50 more albums by other artists...
album
Dreamatorium-Credits:*Buckethead - guitar*Bill Laswell - bass*Robert Musso - Engineering *John Matarazzo - Realization*Robert Soares - A&R Coordination*Norman Saul - System Design...
(Death Cube K is an anagram of Buckethead) was made available.
In 1999, a re-worked version of
Live in Poland was released as
WarszawaWarszawa is a live album made by the supergroup Praxis released in 1999 by the label Innerhythmic.The album contains 3 of the most influential members of the supergroup, bassist and producer Bill Laswell, guitarist Buckethead, and drummer Brain...
. Little was heard of the band for the next years, while Brain and Buckethead played for
Guns N' RosesGuns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
and Laswell concentrated more on his dub releases.
2004–2010
Most original members reunited for a small tour in 2004 and began working on their next studio album
Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness)-U.S. Release :-By Song:-General Credits:*Produced and arranged by Bill Laswell*Created at Orange Music Orange, NJ*Engineer: Robert Musso*Assistant: James Dellatacoma*Drums and Amps/Set up: Artie Smith*Mastered at Turtle Tone Studio...
, but due to the label (Sanctuary) going broke the project was put on hold for about three years.
In 2005
Transmutation Live was re-worked and re-released as
ZurichZurich is a live album by Praxis, released in 2005 by the label Innerhythmic. The album is a recording of their performance at the Jazznojazz Festival in Zurich, Switzerland on June 21, 1996. Other selected parts were recorded live at the Knitting Factory, NYC on June 30, 2000.The song...
.
Another live album called
Tennessee 2004Note: Track 8 is derivative of The Interworld And The New Innocence from the Transmutation album-Personnel:* Praxis:** Buckethead - guitars** Bill Laswell - bass** Bryan "Brain" Mantia - drums** Bernie Worrell - keyboards...
was released in 2007.
On January 1, 2008 the studio album
Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness)-U.S. Release :-By Song:-General Credits:*Produced and arranged by Bill Laswell*Created at Orange Music Orange, NJ*Engineer: Robert Musso*Assistant: James Dellatacoma*Drums and Amps/Set up: Artie Smith*Mastered at Turtle Tone Studio...
was released in Japan with guest contributions by
Serj TankianSerj Tankian is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American singer–songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, record producer, poet, and political activist...
,
Mike PattonMichael Allan "Mike" Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the metal/experimental rock band Faith No More. He has also sung for Mr...
and
Iggy PopIggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
as well as Buckethead's old friend
Maximum BobRobert Barnum, better known under his stage name Maximum Bob, is an American musician known for his work as the lead singer and founding member of rock band Deli Creeps and for his singing on various releases related to avant-garde guitarist Buckethead....
and many more.
2011: End of the band
In January 2011,
Profanation-U.S. Release :-By Song:-General Credits:*Produced and arranged by Bill Laswell*Created at Orange Music Orange, NJ*Engineer: Robert Musso*Assistant: James Dellatacoma*Drums and Amps/Set up: Artie Smith*Mastered at Turtle Tone Studio...
was re-released on the
M.O.D. TechnologiesM.O.D. Technologies is an independent record label based in New York City, intended to be the modern evolution of producer and bassist Bill Laswell's Axiom label. It was founded in 2010 by Laswell and long-time associate John Brown in part to provide a creative outlet for the group Method of...
label with two additional tracks. Later that month Bill Laswell stated that there was no future of the band:
Notable guests
The following musicians have contributed to the various Praxis experiments:
- Afrika Baby Bam
The Jungle Brothers are an American hip hop group that pioneered the fusion of jazz and hip-hop and also became the first hip-hop group to use a house-music producer. The group began performing in the mid-1980s and released its first album, Straight Out the Jungle, in July 1988...
as AF Next Man Flip on turntables
- Cindy Blackman
Cindy Blackman is an American jazz and rock drummer. Blackman is best-known for recording and touring with Lenny Kravitz...
on drums
- Bootsy Collins
William Earl "Bootsy" Collins is an American funk bassist, singer, and songwriter.Rising to prominence with James Brown in the late 1960s, and with Parliament-Funkadelic in the '70s, Collins's driving bass guitar and humorous vocals established him as one of the leading names in funk...
on bass and vocals
- Les Claypool
Leslie Edward "Les" Claypool is an American musician and writer, best known as the lead vocalist and bassist in the band Primus. Claypool's playing style on the electric bass mixes tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends and slapping.Claypool has also self produced and engineered his...
on bass, whamola, and vocals
- DJ Disk
DJ Disk is a San Francisco Bay Area turntablist of Panamanian, Colombian, and Nicaraguan descent. Born Luis Quintanilla on October 7, 1970, in San Francisco, Disk began scratching and mixing vinyl at a young age...
on turntables
- DXT
Grand Mixer DXT is an American turntablist. He was formely known as Grand Mixer D.ST. "D.ST" is a reference to Manhattan, New York City's Delancey Street on the Lower East Side...
on turntables
- Yamatsuka Eye on vocals
- Hakim Bey on vocals, and inspiration
- Mick Harris
Mick Harris commonly known and credited both as Mick Harris or occasionally M.J. Harris, is an English musician....
on drums
- Lili Haydn
Lili Haydn is a violinist, vocalist, composer, guitarist, and actress. As a child, she pursued a career as an actress; at age eight she discovered the violin and began to focus on classical music. By the time Haydn was fifteen, she had played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.After graduating from...
on violin
- Invisibl Skratch Piklz
The Invisibl Skratch Piklz were a group of Americans of Filipino Ancestry turntablists.The members of the group were originally hip-hop DJs, who were among the pioneers of the turntablism movement in the 1990s; turntablists create musical pieces by mixing samples from records, by using multiple...
on turntables
- Toshinori Kondo
Toshinori Kondo is an avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion trumpeter. He resides in Tokyo, New York City, and Amsterdam....
on trumpet
- Maximum Bob
Robert Barnum, better known under his stage name Maximum Bob, is an American musician known for his work as the lead singer and founding member of rock band Deli Creeps and for his singing on various releases related to avant-garde guitarist Buckethead....
on vocals
- Mike Patton
Michael Allan "Mike" Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the metal/experimental rock band Faith No More. He has also sung for Mr...
on vocals
- Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
on vocals
- Serj Tankian
Serj Tankian is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American singer–songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, record producer, poet, and political activist...
on vocals
- Pat Thrall
Pat Thrall is an American rock guitarist. Thrall is a native of the San Francisco area, and began his recording career in 1972. He played guiatar,vocals and percussion with the group Cookin Mama album: new day , that also had this brother Preston Thrall on percussion.Thrall has worked with former...
on guitars
- John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
on saxophone
Musical styles
Between the influence of Laswell and Buckethead, Praxis' musical experimentation in both studio, street and live settings have combined elements of mid-70’s
FunkadelicFunkadelic was an American band most prominent during the 1970s. The band and its sister act Parliament, both led by George Clinton, began the funk music culture of that decade.-History:...
&
Miles DavisMiles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, hip-hop’s more avant-garde leanings, and
Last ExitLast Exit was a free jazz supergroup composed of electric guitarist Sonny Sharrock, drummer/occasional vocalist Ronald Shannon Jackson, saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, and bass guitarist Bill Laswell. They were active from 1986 to the early 1990s, releasing primarily live albums recorded in Europe...
's ferocious yet organic jazz/metal aesthetic. Many of these experiments defined (and in some sense, invented) diverse, eclectic, and freeform genres including avant-garde, heavy metal, funk and jazz-fusion.
Studio albums
- 1992: Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis)
Note: Track 8 starts out with the Giant Robot theme, that is also featured on Buckethead's Bucketheadland album. The track also contains a version of one of the many themes Akira Ifukube wrote for Toho production's Godzilla films.-Personnel:...
- 1993: Sacrifist
- Personnel :*Praxis:**Bootsy Collins - bass and vocals**Buckethead - guitar**Brain - drums**Bernie Worrell - keyboards**Mick Harris - vocals**Yamatsuka Eye - vocals**John Zorn - saxophone**Bill Laswell - bass...
- 1994: Metatron
Metatron is the third album of Bill Laswell and Buckethead's project Praxis. This album concentrates on the core band of Buckethead, Brain and Laswell, rather than featuring a large number of guests like the earlier albums....
- 1998: Mold
Mold is the fourth studio album made by the supergroup Praxis, released in 1998.-Track listing:-Personnel:* Praxis:** Alex Haas - Keyboards, Producer, Engineer, Mixing** Bill Laswell - Bass, Scratching, Producer** Pat Thrall - Guitar...
- 2008: Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness)
-U.S. Release :-By Song:-General Credits:*Produced and arranged by Bill Laswell*Created at Orange Music Orange, NJ*Engineer: Robert Musso*Assistant: James Dellatacoma*Drums and Amps/Set up: Artie Smith*Mastered at Turtle Tone Studio...
EPs and compilations
- 1984: 1984
-Personnel:*Praxis:**Bill Laswell: DMX, turntable, records, tapes, shortwave radio* Recorded and mixed at Evergreen Studio* Engineered by Rob Stevens* Composed, arranged and produced by Bill Laswell* Mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk-External links:*...
- 1992: A Taste of Mutation
A Taste of Mutation is an EP by supergroup Praxis, released in 1992 through Bill Laswell's label Axiom and featuring four songs from their debut album Transmutation .-Track listing:-Personnel:* Praxis:...
- 1998: Collection
Collection is a compilation album by the super-group Praxis, released in 1998 by the label Douglas.This album does not contain any songs from their first album Transmutation and focuses more on the next albums Sacrifist and Metatron .The songs "Maggot Dream" and "Dark Hood" belong to Death Cube...
Live
- 1997: Live in Poland
Live in Poland is the first live album made by the supergroup Praxis, released in 1997.This album contains songs of their last two albums Metatron and Sacrifist, one song from Buckethead's album Giant Robot plus "Tarab" first heard on Nicky Skopelitis' album Ekstasis recorded June 29, 1996.The...
- 1997: Transmutation Live
Transmutation Live is a live album compiled from a live Praxis performance in Zurich, Switzerland, in the summer of 1996. Transmutation Live features an incarnation of Bill Laswell's free jazz/rock/hip-hop collective...
- 1999: Warszawa
Warszawa is a live album made by the supergroup Praxis released in 1999 by the label Innerhythmic.The album contains 3 of the most influential members of the supergroup, bassist and producer Bill Laswell, guitarist Buckethead, and drummer Brain...
- 2005: Zurich
Zurich is a live album by Praxis, released in 2005 by the label Innerhythmic. The album is a recording of their performance at the Jazznojazz Festival in Zurich, Switzerland on June 21, 1996. Other selected parts were recorded live at the Knitting Factory, NYC on June 30, 2000.The song...
- 2007: Tennessee 2004
Note: Track 8 is derivative of The Interworld And The New Innocence from the Transmutation album-Personnel:* Praxis:** Buckethead - guitars** Bill Laswell - bass** Bryan "Brain" Mantia - drums** Bernie Worrell - keyboards...
External links