★ReR Megacorp
Invisible Map
A long time coming, but as always, well worth the wait. Technically, this is the usual uncategorise-able mixture of primitive electronic, ethnic antique and conventional instruments, multilayered processing and meticulous construction. Aurally, vast, three dimensional sonic landscapes emerge in sharp Dalian detail, matched in the generous accompanying booklet with lapidary artworks from the visual component of the band. Extraordinary.
Ash in the Rainbow
Out of print immediately after release, now re-issued. A test-bed of experimental arrangement and production ideas set in the context of songs that only just hold together - exquisitely realised. Extraordinary sounds, treatments and arrangements - in part because the whole project was made, so to say, in reverse - starting life in a body of existing material by Avant Garde Cellist Hiromichi Sakomoto, then reworked, with texts, vocals and other materials added (reversed vibraphone, and a…
Hopes And Fears
The first Art Bears LP, mostly made by the band formerly known as Henry Cow and completed by Fred Frith, Chris Cutler and Dagmar Krause who went on, as '[Art Bears', to investigate this short song format further over the next two years, once Henry Cow had ceased to exist. Experimenting with the song form and the productive possibilities of the recording studio, this was hailed in its time (1978) as a landmark recording, and has been constantly in demand ever since. Therefore this new versi…
Winter Songs
A reissue of the brilliant second album by Art Bears, a band/project featuring Fred Frith, Chris Cutler and Dagmar Krause, formed in 1978 after disputes over the musical direction within Henry Cow. 'Winter Songs', originally released in 1979, placed Art Bears in the forefront of the Rock In Opposition Movement. Art Bears' intense and brutal avant-garde approach on the album comes across as primordial expression, which is nailed down by Krause's violently charismatic voice. As a piece of music re…
The World As It Is Today
The third classic Art Bears record, and the most austere. Remastered and repackaged.
If you thought Henry Cow was a pretty political band to start with, you may be even more taken aback by the Art Bears, which was put together following Henry Cow's demise by former Cows Chris Cutler (percussion), Fred Frith (guitar, violin), and Dagmar Krause (voice). On The World as it is Today and its predecessor, Winter Songs, the Art Bears move away from the long-form art rock of Henry Cow and get much, much…
Tessuti
The latest from Paulo on which he plays compositions by Fred Frith and Bjork - solo (though when you hear it, you definitely won't believe it) on his highly customised and extended, electrified, giant Sardinian guitar. A tour de force of technique and a musical pleasure. There is so much subtlety and so much attention to the minutiae of sound, and so much going on at any given time, that it is difficult to relate what you hear to just one person playing. Very concentrated, rewards listenin…
Itsunomanika
Paolo Angeli and ex-After Dinner/Volapuk violinist/singer Takumi Fukushima present an integrated, complex and largely composed programme of deft, focused pieces that make the most of their not inconsiderable individual talents and instruments; mostly sounding like a much larger ensemble. The sonorities of Paolo’s extended, customised, prepared giant Sardinian guitar doing extraordinary, and sometimes chameleonic, work as bass, chord accompaniment, melody instrument, viola/cello, and even percuss…
Sale Quanto Basta
Paolo Angeli’s latest is an extraordinary collection of pieces that explore the full range of his highly modified, extended and prepared Sardinian guitar; and although it’s just him and electricity, it seldom sounds like fewer than 3 people. Great compositions, each like a short novel, beautifully recorded. Paolo’s unique music defies genre or category - at once accessible, experimental, tuneful, tactile, ambient, with a folk root and a rock inflection and a contemporary outlook. And his instrum…
Bucato
Extraordinary player - extraordinary instrument. Paulo plays a highly modified and treated Sardinian Guitar - in many styles, some of them apparently impossible. Innovative techniques, a deeply musical sensibility and a rich, occasionally baffling, palette of sounds.
Inevitably, comparisons will be made with Fred Frith, though not by me, Paulo is his own man. A fine and original work.
NITA. L'Angelo sul Trapezio
This could hardly be more different from his first ReR CD- the extraordinary collection of solo prepared Sardinian Guitar pieces. Here, with a small orchestra of musicians (30 of Bologna's finest), is a programme of highly evolved, through composed pieces that cover half a planet of styles and influences. At one pole there are involved pieces that bring to mind Uncle Meat period Zappa, and contemporary experimental music - and at the other, the straightforward influence of traditional Sa…
Tibi
This disc will play in stereo on a CD player and with film and 5.1 surround sound (or stereo) on a DVD player or computer. The music, as always, is prodigious, sounding like a small band, but played by one person in real time (as the film attests). In this format, you can also see the instrument close-to - a highly rebuilt and extended giant Sardinian guitar - with many sympathetic and extra strings, motor driven hurdy gurdy wheels, whirling strings, springs and other appendages, played, …
S'Û
An amazing record. It’s beautifully recorded and almost impossible to believe that such a layered and polyphonic music, with chords, percussion, lead lines, bass lines, harmonies, string sections and sometimes voice could all be produced by one person in real time, without overdubs or loops. But it is. The instrument, a specially designed and augmented Sardinian guitar (almost the size of a cello) is equipped with motors, pedals, individual string mic’ing, and extra appendages; and of course the…
Crashing Icons
Based in Miami, this is a very interesting American band, ploughing its own furrow - whose accent is what they call 'prog' over there, but whose language is more complex by far. Pip Pyle adds a seasoned sophistication - in fact I think this is a great environment for him, he shines - but the whole ensemble is way past the foothills and keeping the oxygen packs handy. An excellent first CD, in a style that, features densely composed, layered, slightly post 5UU-school music - with some sung…
Crisis In Clay
Second Installment from monster band 5UU's, featuring rock complexity, extraordinary production (by bassist and singer Bob Drake) and high energy precision mixed with eccentric song-writing. People that work this hard are becoming an endangered species. Extraordinary.
Vertigo
The Necks 18th album Vertigo is an eventful, kaleidoscopic tone poem set against a darkly shimmering background. Slowly but inexorably moving forward, it crosses many frontiers yet remains true to the mission and mood established in the opening stanzas of this cinematic 44 minute journey. A work able to be viewed either as a whole, or two symmetrical halves, Vertigo sees The Necks once again offer an excursion in sound that reflects both the light and darkness of some preternatural world.
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Concerts
Originally released in 1976, this collection offers a snapshot of Henry Cow as audiences would have heard it in the year before. In the chronology, Concerts came between In Praise of Learning and Western Culture - that is, after Virgin had lost interest in releasing any more Henry Cow studio records and before the band quit to make one of its own. It was also the year of the 'merger' with Robert Wyatt for a series of concerts in which compositions were shared - the last show, in Rome, was…
Leg End
By public demand! First time on CD for the original mix of the album that launched a thousand careers, inspired the establishment of a number of international record companies, and built many reputations. This was the first time together on record for Fred Frith, Tim Hodgkinson, Chris Cutler, John Greaves and Geoff Leigh. An extension and fusion of the key influences of Soft Machine and Frank Zappa, the album is packed full of extraordinary tunes, complex but never pompous arrangements, an…
Western Culture
"Remastered & repackaged with expansive notes and three extra tracks (Viva Pa Ubu, Slice and Look Back (alt). I'm biased of course but I believe this was a milestone recording, perhaps the closest we came to getting the music to sound the way we wanted on disc. "-Chris Cutler (ReR Megacorp)
Unrest
Dating from 1974, and following on from the re-release of Legend, this is the second in our series of vinyl reissues of the original Virgin albums. Geoff Leigh had left the group and Lindsay Cooper joined on bassoon, oboe, flute, soprano sax. The mix was more 'live' than Legend, with the drums much more up front. The first half is highly composed material, with some of the Henry Cow's best loved tunes, like 'Half Asleep Half Awake' and 'Bittern Storm Over Ulm'. For the second half the mat…
In Praise of Learning
"Art is not a mirror - It is a hammer" - John GriersonAnthony Moore / Dagmar Krause / Tim Hodgkinson / John Greaves / Chris Cutler / Lindsay Cooper / Peter BlegvadOriginal Mix. Remastered and with new, amplified booklet of pictures and texts. Third in the definitive series.
A landmark in the history of European experimental rock, the third 'Cow' work, originally released on Virgin in 1975, represents the second act of joined forces between Henry Cow and Slapp Happy, and the first fully integr…