Apart from an early experimental 12" that has little to do with the later records, Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) was the first release of producer Bill Laswell's Praxis project, which he conceived and constructed around mystery guitar virtuoso Buckethead. Beautifully packaged (fascinating artwork by James Koehnline, freaky photography by Thi-Linh Le, and rebellious liner notes by Hakim Bey), this disc presented a band of top musicians at their most creative: apart from Buckethead, there are P-Funkers Bootsy Collins (bass) and Bernie Worrell (keyboards), plus drummer Brain (aka Brian Mantia) and turntable wizard Af Next Man Flip (aka Afrika Babybam from the Jungle Brothers). From the searing heavy metal riffs that open the disc to the spaced-out noise collage that ends it, the band covers lots of territory: metal, rock, funk, hip-hop, jazz, noise intermezzos, back and forth, crossbred and interlocked. The first two tracks, "Blast/War Machine Dub" and "Interface/Stimulation Loop," change from heavy metal to funk effortlessly. The third, "Crash Victim/Black Science Navigator," turns from a breakneck-paced metal riff into a hip-hop scratching orgy without a second thought. "Animal Behavior" is certainly the most accessible track on the disc, relentlessly funky and featuring funny vocals by Bootsy. The second part of the track is a haunting ballad that points to Buckethead's later accomplishments on his solo release Colma. "Dead Man Walking," "Seven Laws of Woo," and "The Interworld and the New Innocence" are showcases for Buckethead's dangerous guitar shredding, alternating between majestic and breathless. "Giant Robot/Machines in the Modern City/Godzilla" prepares for the big showdown, with lots of mean guitar riffs standing against weird sounds and effects. The last track, "After Shock (Chaos Never Died)," then delivers an unusual outro by letting the rock-ish intro quickly dissolve into a strange sonic collage, featuring Worrell's Hammond organ improvisation augmented by heavily treated noises and sounds, scratches, and tape manipulations. In fact, the last track (which runs well over 15 minutes) may be the only thing that will put most listeners off, but in fact this track is the icing on the cake -- like the liner notes read, "Chaos Is Not Entropy...Chaos Is Continual Creation." ~ Christian Genzel, All Music Guide
Bill Laswell (Artwork), Hakim Bey (Liner Notes), Bernie Worrell (Clavinet), Bernie Worrell (Organ), Imad Mansour (Assistant), Bootsy Collins (Vocals), Oz Fritz (Engineer), Hakim Bey (Text), Peter Wetherbee (?), Paul Berry (Mixing Assistant), Aldo Sampieri (Design), Howie Weinberg (Mastering), Tony Meilandt (?), Buckethead (Toy Instruments), Imad Mansour (Assistant Engineer), Paul Berry (Assistant Engineer), Tracy McKnight (Coordination), Robert Musso (Overdubs), Thi-Linh Le (Artwork), Thi-Linh Le (Photography), Thi-Linh Le (Art Direction), Af Next Man Flip (Lord of the Paradox) (Turntables), James Koehnline (Artwork), Bill Laswell (Concept), Paul Berry (Assistant), Brain (Drums), Buckethead (Guitar), Buckethead (?), Bill Laswell (Construction), James Koehnline (Art Direction), Bernie Worrell (Synthesizer), Bootsy Collins (Bass), Af Next Man Flip (Lord of the Paradox) (Mixing)
Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) is the first album by Bill Laswell's everchanging "supergroup" Praxis. This first album features Buckethead on guitar, Bootsy Collins on bass and vocals, Brain on drums, Bernie Worrell on keyboards and DJ AF Next Man Flip on turntables and mixer.
Transmutation features a wide range of musical styles, all mixed together to make a very diverse and unique album. Styles such as heavy metal, funk, hip hop, ambient, jazz and blues are blended together to form a strange style of avant-garde, with extended guitar and keyboard solos, and highly improvised passages.
Animal Behavior is the first and up to date (July 2009) only single by supergroupPraxis. The song was a natural choice to promote the band's debut album as well as Bill Laswell's new label Axiom since it was the only song of the album to contain lyrics. [1] The vocals were done by former P-Funk member Bootsy Collins who also plays "space bass" while his P-Funk colleague Bernie Worrell can be heard on keyboards. Furthermore the core members, San Francisco Bay Area musicians Bryan "Brain" Mantia (drums) and Buckethead (guitars) plus mastermind Bill Laswell (samples) were reinforced by turntablist Af Next Man Flip (aka Afrika Baby Bam of the Jungle Brothers).
The single includes three different versions of the title track written by Collins, Laswell and Buckethead [2], an edited album version from Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis), a short radio edit and a third version that was used for the music video. The original seven minute album version was also released on the EPA Taste of Mutation in the same year and later included to the Axiom compilation Funkcronomicon in 1995 while the video edit was re-released in 1993 on Manifestation: Axiom Collection II. [3] The song also was included as the last part of the suite "Cosmic Trigger" on the album Axiom Ambient - Lost in the Translation in 1994. [4][5]
A video was released for promoting the album and single. It features frequent scenes shot in night vision, footage of guitarist Buckethead moving around and a monster made out of trash. When singer Bootsy Collins starts singing the first verse, another monster made out of soda cans appears. The video later shows how Buckethead fights the first robot with his severed hand but the monster manages to decapitate him. After that the band is shown playing the song in night vision. A scarecrow with a square head appears when the mellow part of the song starts. The members of the band are shown against a sunset background. The video ends with still shots of all the band members and the music fading out. [6] The video clip was played on MTV's Amp[7][8] and was included in Buckethead's 2006 DVD Secret Recipe.
