HELTER SKELTER (WITH FRANÇOIS-MICHEL PESENTI )

Fred Frith has had a legendary career as an avant-garde musician and composer. He was a huge part of course of HENRY COW, but also releasing close to 50 of his own studio albums. And I have seen this man guesting on countless albums over the years. Highly respected and loved, Fred continues to be relevant in the avant-garde.

Going through his studio albums on the site here it was so cool to see him in collaboration with Henry Kaiser, and how about those improvs he did in NYC in the early eighties with Bill Laswell, John Zorn, Sonny Sharrock and Derek bailey. Oh my! He also released an album "Domestic Stories" around the time this record "Helter Skelter" was released that had Dagmar Krause and Chris Cutler on it.

It was a chance meeting with Francois-Michel Pesenti that led to this "Rock Opera" that would be called "Helter Skelter". Pesenti wrote the lyrics while Frith composed the music, produced this, and conducted the live events. He doesn't play on this, much like Zorn a lot of the time with his solo records. They were given a grant by the government of France for these live stage shows that they would perform. A dozen musicians or so plus two soprano female singers and an alto male is our lineup. The first show was in France in December of 1990. This record wasn't recorded until 1992 in studio, but some live stuff was added from previous shows. A lot of horns, drums and vocals to over simplify it. Avant for sure. Sixteen tracks worth over 55 minutes.

What possessed me to pick this up is still a mystery to me. Other than it's Frith, but I find soprano female vocals difficult, and that it was also advertised a Rock Opera again begs the question "Why would I bother?". Well I'm glad I did because this works for me from front to back. I think one of the reasons it does work is the relative sparseness of it. It just feels like nothing over-stays it's welcome. They come and go quick whether it's the vocals, dissonant horns or drum flurries. And understand there's a lot more instruments it just doesn't sound like it.

This does feel like it's live, almost like seeing the visual would help. The female singers often are speaking or yelling. I can picture stuff going on. The live shows featured actors. The final 20 minutes or less of the album are really strong and "Lux Aeterna" especially should be heard with headphones. By the way the album is divided into two sections both with 8 songs. The final track of the first section "Crescent City/ Agnus Dei" is worth mentioning for that steady rhythm with dissonant horns over top until 3 1/2 minutes in then the soprano vocals take over. Great track.

This is a consistent record and well worth the 4 stars. So glad I took the chance with this one.

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