Henry Cow - Western Culture

HENRY COW:
Fred Frith: electric & acoustic guitars, bass guitar, soprano saxophone (background "On the Raft"), vocals ("Viva Pa Ubu")
Lindsay Cooper: bassoon, oboe, soprano saxophone, sopranino recorders, vocals ("Viva Pa Ubu")
Tim Hodgkinson: organ, clarinet, alto saxophone, Hawaiian guitar, piano, vocals ("Viva Pa Ubu")
Chris Cutler: drums, electric drums, noise, piano, trumpet (background "On the Raft"), vocals ("Viva Pa Ubu")
Guests:
Annemarie Roelofs: trombone, violin
Irène Schweizer: piano ("Gretels Tale")
Georgie Born: bass guitar ("½ the Sky", "Viva Pa Ubu"), vocals ("Viva Pa Ubu")
Dagmar Krause: vocals ("Viva Pa Ubu")

The group's fourth and final studio LP, Western Culture remained for a long time Henry Cow's hidden treasure. Two factors were instrumental to its occultation (and one more than the other): first, it was not released by Virgin like the other ones; second, it did not have the "sock" artwork common to its brothers. Obscurity aside, Western Culture remains one of the group's strongest efforts in the lines of composition, especially since the unit was literally torn apart at the time. Side one consists of a suite in three parts, "History & Prospects," written by Tim Hodgkinson. The opener, "Industry," stands as one of Henry Cow's finest achievements, the angular melody played on a cheap electric organ hitting you in the face so hard it makes an imprint in your brains. Side two features another suite, this one in four parts and by Lindsay Cooper. While Hodgkinson's music leans toward rock, energy, and deconstruction, her writing embraced more contemporary classical idioms. Filled with contrasting textures and delicate complicated melodies, these pieces showcased another aspect of the group's sound while foretelling her later works. Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer performed a cadenza of sorts in "Gretel's Tale."

1979 WESTERN CULTURE
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Art Bears - Hopes and Fears

ART BEARS:
Fred Frith: guitar, violin, viola, piano, harmonium, xylophone
Dagmar Krause: vocals
Chris Cutler: drums, electronic drums, percussion, noises
Lindsay Cooper: bassoon, oboe, soprano saxophone, tape
Georgie Born: bass, cello
Tim Hodgkinson: organ, clarinet

The first album from Dagmar Krause, Chris Cutler, and Fred Frith's post-Henry Cow project is one of the art rock masterpieces of the 1970s. It's as politically potent as Henry Cow's more strident work, but couched in more poetic and provocative terms. Opening with Bertolt Brecht's "On Suicide," with Krause declaiming the playwright's bitter lyrics in her semi-operatic style to the wheezing accompaniment of Frith's harmonium, the album continues in that uncompromising vein. Although most of the other members of Henry Cow guest, with reeds player Lindsay Cooper and keyboardist Tim Hodgkinson playing on a majority of the 13 songs, Hopes and Fears is considerably more focused and powerful than that group's often scattershot albums. The songs are built on Cutler's impressively varied drumming (often on electronically modified instruments), and the amazing variety of sounds Frith is able to coax out of a battery of electric and acoustic guitars, but there's enough space in the music for Krause's unique vocals to shine. Highlights include the epic, multi-part "In Two Minds," parts of which are as close as the Art Bears ever come to conventional rock music (which is to say, not very close at all, but there's an electric guitar solo), and the puckish instrumental, "Moeris Dancing."

1978 HOPES & FEARS
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