Henry Cow appreciation society

Look under 'more individual shots' - he is next to Jakko Jakszyk (now touring with King Crimson)

Man, I'm just revisiting Of Queues and Cures and absolutely love it. I've been thinking... Maybe create a seperate Canterbury Collective sometime?
This thread just proves how many connections Henry Cow has with Canterbury scene. I've also just found out that Mont Campbell played a french horn on Desperate Straights, which makes it the only non-Canterburian contribution of his (excluding the phenomenally-crafted world music he has been creating in the 90's). I firmly believe Campbell is one of prog rock's best composers. The track that I believe is a peak of his genius is "Prelude" from The Civil Surface. It has somewhat of a Magma feel to it, but more importantly, I think this track is up there with compositions of Stravinsky, Bartok or Messiaen. Rarely does one manage to mix the elaborate musical complexity with incredibly strong moodiness that the piece has, Campbell succeeded. Just listen to the track and feel the unbelievable magic that it has!

As to Henry Cow stuff, I think I'll be aiming to buy Unrest on vinyl, preferably the 180 g reissue from ReR or the original Virgin pressing.

Man, I'm just revisiting Of Queues and Cures and absolutely love it. I've been thinking... Maybe create a seperate Canterbury Collective sometime?
This thread just proves how many connections Henry Cow has with Canterbury scene. I've also just found out that Mont Campbell played a french horn on Desperate Straights, which makes it the only non-Canterburian contribution of his (excluding the phenomenally-crafted world music he has been creating in the 90's). I firmly believe Campbell is one of prog rock's best composers. The track that I believe is a peak of his genius is "Prelude" from The Civil Surface. It has somewhat of a Magma feel to it, but more importantly, I think this track is up there with compositions of Stravinsky, Bartok or Messiaen. Rarely does one manage to mix the elaborate musical complexity with incredibly strong moodiness that the piece has, Campbell succeeded. Just listen to the track and feel the unbelievable magic that it has!

As to Henry Cow stuff, I think I'll be aiming to buy Unrest on vinyl, preferably the 180 g reissue from ReR or the original Virgin pressing.

What have I just done with that triple posting thing? Man... Sorry for that spamming, I don't know how it happened.
As to Richard's tone, I did not really like it. I feel it has too much of the soft thump, typical of fusion bassists. But that's just my opinion. Undoubtedly, he is an incredible player.

Listened to Unrest yesterday and man... I was really underrating that album. I thought I had reviewed it too early a few months ago and ended up editing the whole review and rating. It's really good. Another thing is that my approach to free-form improvisation has changed immensly in the last months. Generally speaking, I'm more opened to forms that interfere with the aesthetic ideals set by the western society, if you will. So yeah, I highly encourage you to read my new review of Unrest. Amazing album. What do you think of it? Are you bothered or disturbed by free jazz?

Anybody still watching this thread? Tom? Flight? José?


Edited by ALotOfBottle - August 18 2016 at 02:19

^Totally! There are quite a few fun facts about Unrest. "Ruins" was composed based on a Fibonacci's sequence, while "Half Asleep; Half Awake" (man, I looooove the piano prelude by John Greaves) was allegedly a "perversion" on Frith's youth favorite - "Got To Hurry" by Yardbirds. Amazing! Also, "Solemn Music" was the only released part of their soundtrack for the avant-garde interpretation of The Tempest. And the album was dedicated to Robert Wyatt and Uli Trepte of Guru Guru and Faust (which surprised me very much, especially the second one). Anyway, amazing album. Almost up there with LegEnd.


Edited by ALotOfBottle - August 19 2016 at 06:54

I am not sure if it is still there but there is a podcast from the Steve Davies radio show where Chris Cutler discusses the making of Unrest.  http://www.phoenixfm.com/?s=Chris+Cutler



If I had to pick a favourite, then it would be 'Deluge'...

Yes, always monitoring this forum!!

Nope, I rarely buy CD's - I'm a stubborn Vinyl obsessive. This attitude has to change coz I guess I'm missing out on lots of special recordings/archival releases which will never make it to wax......

On the subject of vinyl - I bought IPOL on release from Virgin mail order - it was bent when I received it but my Dad manage to flatten it out!  I remember getting 'Concerts' on release as well - the Virgin shop had not even put it on the shelves - I got it straight out of the box!  I also have 'Leg End' on original vinyl too.