FRED FRITH

A strange story: My brother, who mostly listens to fairly accessible 1990s alternative rock, loves the opening track off this album. Then again, he also likes Captain Beefheart and black midi, so I think he just has a hidden taste for crazy avant-prog. The opening track doesn't sound much like the rest of this album, though. It's more of a jaunty randomized atonal version of the Super Mario theme for 90 seconds. The rest of it is sparse drones and improvisation, with the occasional stranger sounds like on No Birds seeping through the already unique sheen of noise. I'd argue what he does here is more understandable (maybe not accessible) to the average person than Van Halen or the like, but that's a discussion for another day. All in all, this album is a real head-turner, some sounds with guitars that I haven't really heard replicated. Like, what is going on in Glass c/w Steel, or Heat c/w Moment, or Not Forgotten, or...

This is an album that exists on the fringes of music in general. Even if "Morning Star" is your favourite Henry Cow song, I cannot guarantee that you will enjoy listening to A Mountain Doesn't Know It's Tall. I should temper one's expectations right away by saying that Fred Frith plays guitar on but a minority of tracks on this album, and when he does, his playing style is unconventional, to say the least. Only on the moody "Now Here" does he play some relatively normal harmonics and two-handed tapping. Elsewhere he makes his guitar sound, at various points, like a gong, a prepared piano, a rusty valve and practically anything besides what it actually is; on the other tracks he resorts to percussive 'home-made instruments' and all sorts of random found objects. Likewise, Ikue Mori plays no drums here and sticks exclusively to a laptop with which she produces computerized glitchy synth beeps, static, feedback and various noises so as to give off the impression of a dial-up modem gone haywire. Furthermore, all music on here is freely improvised and follows no discernible structure, rhythm or even key (most of the individual sounds produced by this duo are non-tonal anyway)

Accessibility is clearly not a priority of the musicians here, but for how supposedly unlistenable I must be making this seem right now, you may be surprised by how unpretentious and subdued it actually is: I actually find these noise collages quite soothing to listen to, especially the tracks with Japanese titles, which indeed seem to be attempts at channeling traditional Japanese music: they are more atmospheric and feature bell- and tam-tam-like sounds that are rich in overtones, and Frith and Mori imitate kotos, shakuhachis and shôs with their instruments. "The Same Moon Sometimes Seems To Smile" is another highlight: the chirping synths and rustling percussion sound vaguely like bird calls and a flowing river respectively, and give off the impression of a peaceful morning scene within a mechanized cyber-future. Similarly, "A Thief Breaks Into An Empty House", with its beautiful violin-like guitar arpeggios juxtaposed over whirling electronic glissandos, sounds like it would be a perfect fit for a love song for androids. The closing "Samadhi" is the only track on the album which I'd describe as disquieting, with non-distinct clouds of musical mass sliding in and out of silence.

I realize that this is a taste that takes a lot of will to acquire, and for that reason I can't really recommend this album to every progressive rock fan, but if you are open-minded towards noisy improvisation and wildly non-standard instrumentation, or if you are curious about what a fusion of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Derek Bailey would sound like, then this is a worthwhile time investment.

Once you decide to start exploring the discography of Fred Frith, you notice quickly that his solo discography is quite diverse ranging from accessible music to very experimental music. To me, that's what makes him so intriguing. The problem with this is that there are a lot of great albums and there are a lot of them that are not quite so good, the same problem one might have when going through the discography of Robert Fripp, Brian Eno or John Zorn. But, the journey through artists like that, for me at least, is all worth the trip, and sometimes, that "not quite so good" stuff starts to actually speak to you.

With Frith (and other artists similar with similar varied discographies), I tend to start out not by trying out what others recommend so much as just finding CD's in 2nd hand stores for a cheap price and then graduating up to vinyl or digital if I really like the album. This seems to be the best way for me to begin exploring an artists music. Thus, this is how I came to hear this album "The Top of His Head". This one is actually a soundtrack from the movie of the same name. I have never seen the movie, but I do know it is a rather obscure Canadian comedy-drama of sorts directed by Peter Mettler that is a bit hard to find nowadays. From what I understand, it is a bit odd, but that also fits the music on the soundtrack.

So, the thing about listening to soundtracks is that I like to listen to it outside of the "movie" to see if the music stands alone well. It's one thing if the music fits the movie and enhances or helps define the movie, but it's another thing to listen to it on its own terms, which is typically how I would rate a soundtrack album. Listening to an album from Fred Frith, I would expect some experimentation and some amazing guitar work, original and engaging.

The music from "The Top of His Head" is all written by Frith except for two tracks: "This Old Earth" which is written and sung by Jane Siberry and "The Way You Look Tonight" originally written in 1936. The entire first side of the album (on LP that is) consists of 9 short tracks by Frith with him playing most of the instruments. A lot of the tracks here consist of a lot of interesting sound effects and some spoken word recordings which may or may not be part of the film. It is mostly a bit minimal sounding, and the music seems a bit aimless and definitely does not contain a lot of melodic lines. It's not all a throw away, however, as there are (as is to be expected) a lot of really great sections where Frith utilizes his unique styles quite well, but they are a bit short and spread out through the tracks. There also isn't a lot of room here for development in the typical compositional respect. There are only three out of these first nine tracks that are really good and those are "Driving to the Train", "Wheels Within" and "Fall to Call", tracks 2, 3, and 9 respectively. These can pretty much stand on their own, but the rest of the tracks don't have a lot of substance and there are a lot of tracks in the middle that don't go anywhere. They may have some tie in to the film, but without having seen it, they are just not that engaging or interesting to me.

The 2nd half of the album is a bit better, especially at first. On the CD version, the first four tracks are quite good with a combination of accessibility, melodic sensibility (especially with the Siberry track which, again, Frith really doesn't have much to do with), and even some progressive challenge which is really what we are looking for; namely "Underwater Dream", "This Old Earth", "Donuts" and "The Long Drive" (this last one is not on the LP unfortunately). After that, the last 5 tracks fall back into the sound effect, aimless feel of the first half of the album which probably have a lot to do with the movie, but for stand alone listening, it just doesn't make a lot of sense. At this point, there aren't really any great musical ideas at all.

As much as I love a lot of Frith's albums both as a solo artist and an ensemble artist, I hate to admit it a bit when I run across one I don't find that interesting. I do enjoy a few places on the first half of the album and the first part of the 2nd half of the album, but when these are taken away, there just doesn't seem to be much else to get excited about. The tracks are too short to really expand on and they also seem to dependent on the movie. I'm not certain if there is a collection out there somewhere that might bring some of the better tracks together in a compilation of some kind, but I'm not really sure if this album is worth seeking out (unless you run across it by accident and really cheap, like I did). Sad to say that in the end, I would probably only recommend this one to hard core fans or collectors. That is definitely not the way I feel about most of Frith's work however.

The album series "Eye to Ear" by Fred Frith is a 3 volume group of albums originally issued separately. They all feature music from films or theater productions and the music on each album is quite varied. It ranges from completely avant-garde to straightforward, but the music is all distinctively composed by Frith and features him on almost every instrument or piece of equipment, except for the use of some guests on occasion. Together, the album is not that cohesive, but then, this album is meant to be for film and theater music aficionados. However, Frith fans will also be quite interested in hearing it also.

The album begins and ends with "Le Recontre", which is from a film (from 1992) based on a short story by Emmanuel Bove. This composition is a bit starchy, not really leaving much of an impact on the listener, which is usually what movie music tries to achieve, mostly it just brings an uneasy atmosphere. However, it does flow along easily and features the sounds from a tenor saxophone performed by Boris Denker. Other than being a bit odd, there isn't much to capture your attention or imagination without any visuals. "Backroom" comes from a stage production from 1994 and appears in three parts throughout the album. These three tracks are noisy affairs, the first one feeling quite metallic (in sound, not style) and harsh, yet is cushioned by a softly droning background that almost makes it feel comforting.

"Thea Und Nat" is actually a five-part track featuring incidental music from a RV German melodrama from 1992. This one is a complete change of style and is more straightforward sounding, yet not what you would call easy listening all of the time. The music, which is a bit symphonic sounding, is accentuated by accordion and clarinet. This track goes by quickly even at over 12 minutes because of it being composed of 5 shorter pieces. After this, we return to "Backroom" with the 2nd part of this music, this time it is more rhythmic, but this percussive feel all comes from the guitar and instrumental manipulation, not from actual percussive instruments. It is again quite harsh, but with no real "cushion" this time to soften the industrial feel of it all.

"Picture of Light" is my favorite off of the album. It is more atmospheric, but also quite unsettling and dissonant. The music comes from a documentary about the Northern Lights from 1992. The music swirls and unfolds around you and is actually very nice even with it's avant-style atmosphere. In reality, the music was written for the documentary, but was never actually used. What ever the reason for it not being used was, to me it definitely conveys that feeling of being out on a cold evening watching the aurora borealis flutter and flash across the sky. This beautiful piece of art continues on for over 9 minutes. If you expect to listen to this in the traditional way of listening to recorded music, then these 9 minutes will crawl by, but to completely lose yourself in this atmosphere makes it fly by way too quickly.

"Ostkreuz" contains music from a film from 1992 of the same name that was filmed following the re-unification of Germany. This 6 minute track is made up of four sections. It is not really what I would call straightforward, but it isn't really too far out there either, for the most part. It has a slightly industrial feel to it but combines some nice atmospheric textures also. Much of the preceding tracks on the albums are structured quite rhythmically, but this one is much less so, but it is also my favorite selection on the album because it is unpredictable, yet it is not necessarily harsh either. The music is accented with strings, accordion, trumpet and some nice, manipulated sounds that reflect natural sounds.

"In the Train" follows, it flows quite well with plucked and bowed strings. It's a short track and probably the most listener-friendly of the entire set. The music was to be used in the Richard Linklater film "Before Sunrise" for a train scene, and that is really what the plucked music seems to reflect. The music, as nice as it is, was never used in the finished film however. "Backroom III" is the lesser harsh of the 3 Backroom tracks, but it still has a harsh, metallic atmosphere with improvised dissonant, tonal scraping-quality textures backed up by an organ which works to try to smooth out the harshness, at least part of the time. The textures sound quite interesting as they conflict with each other, yet making it the most interesting of the 3 Backroom tracks. The last track is a reprise of "Le Rencontre" which works to tie the entire album together, or at least attempts to do so.

This is not an album for easy listening soundtrack enjoyment at all, though it does have its moments when it could be. But the variation in sound and style here lends to an album that is not very cohesive, but it really isn't supposed to be. It's a collection, and as such, takes various film tracks and collects them together in one spot. It's purpose is to present Frith's film music without regard to categorizing style, the focus is on the composer, not a particular style. As such, it does a great job of presenting Frith's compositional talent. It's not for everyone, and doesn't try to be for everyone. Personally, I find the variety quite appealing as it keeps the overall album from sounding too much the same or wearing out a particular style. This was Frith's first album to be released on John Zorn's label and it definitely works well with that avant-style of music that the label is famous for. In the end, it is an excellent album that offers a wide variety of the composer's style when composing for visual media.

Fred Frith's second post-Henry Cow solo album continued the project, begun on Gravity, of Fred collaborating with a range of different bands, so Fred's multi-instrumentalist performances provide the thematic connection strands but the different band approaches keep things fresh. On the first side of the album - that's the material from Kick the Can pt. 1 to Women Speak To Men; Men Speak to Women, Fred is backed up by Etron Fou Leloublan, an established RIO act whose jazz-punk stylings fit the "mutant pop meets world music" style of the compositions nicely.

On the second side, the backing group is Massacre, a No Wave supergroup consisting of Fred himself allied with Bill Laswell and Fred Maher. This was actually an extremely busy year for the Massacre members, because as well as this album they were putting out an official Massacre debut album and Laswell and Maher, having only just wrapped up the New York Gong project with Daevid Allen, were poised to unleash the debut Material album on the world (on which Fred guested). It's the sort of percussive avant-melodic "you can dance to this but you'd look weird doing it" stuff that listeners have come to expect from the Material musical microcosm.

I saw Fred Frith live several times and was always amazed by his creativity and his very individual and unique approach to sounds and music. From his live performances, for me, he is just one of the very very best. His albums are more of a mixed bag; he has tried out many different things and some just don't click with me. Much of what he is doing live is apparently improvised or doesn't find its way on records, so he is certainly more of a live musician than a record artist.

I also saw Helter Skelter live when at the time he toured with Que d'la Gueule, a project in Marseille consisting of young unemployed musicians. This certainly helped my appreciation of this record, which is one that I think carries over the quality of a live performance quite well (it is, I think, partly recorded live). This is pretty much composed from beginning to the end, and therefore somewhat atypical for Frith, who worked as composer and conductor here and didn't play himself.

Helter Skelter was branded as a "rock opera", but there isn't that much singing and at least the non-French listener will have a hard time figuring out what the opera is actually about (not sure about the French either). I think that there was a booklet explaining it when it was brought on stage, but I don't have that anymore. It is, though, a well thought through and quite dynamic piece of music, and you're free to imagine your own story to it. There are many voices, but they are often rather used as sound effects, with some talking and shouting, although there are one or two parts that have something like opera singing. Apart from that, some bits are rhythmic and actually quite loud and occasionally chaotic, with the power of the band's many instrumentalists (drums and percussion, guitar, saxophones etc., all sections several members strong) piling up. But then there are also rather calm parts carried by electronics and samples. Stark contrasts are often used from one movement to another. There is often quite a bit going on, even in the quieter parts, but then some moments are also given to a single instrument or voice.

It'll probably not be an easy ride for many, without the help of simple song structures, with all the contrasts and occasional outbursts of chaos and atonality. Be also prepared for Frith's own mixture of Jazzy playing, experimental sounds and rocky but often odd rhythms.

Somehow, at least for me, the thing works as a whole and I can mostly make sense of what happens when. It's one of the few works in prog that in its variety, inventiveness and conceptual strength I'd think also lover and composers of contemporary "academic" music would accept as something to admire, while at the same time carrying some rough emotionality.

It's an exciting musical adventure that may challenge the listener but gives rich reward; maybe Frith's best.

First a big thankyou to Holy Moly (Steve) for suggesting I check this album out. This was Fred's second solo album after leaving HENRY COW and like the first one ("Gravity") he has a different lineup of musicians for each side of the original vinyl album. On "Gravity" he had SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA helping out on side one and THE MUFFINS helping out on side two plus other guests. Here it's ETRON FOU LELOUBLAN helping out on side one while on side two we get the band MASSACRE (Frith, Laswell and Maher) along with guests like SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA's Hans Bruniusson, George Cartwright, Tina Curran and more. I should mention that Fred would return the favour to ETRON FOU LELOUBLAN by producing their masterpiece of the following year "Les Poumons Gonfles" and also playing on it. He'd also help them out on their final release from 1985.

On side one we can hear samples of sounds that Fred used from street fairs from New York City along with sounds from street demonstrations. This can be heard right away on the short opener "Kick The Can Part 1" along with other sparse sounds. "Carnival On Wall Street" does sound like circus music somewhat as those tapes of street sounds again are used. This is cool. It's all so intricate and punchy and then it turns darker before 1 1/2 minutes which lasts about a minute before the previous soundscape returns. "Ahead In The Sand" opens with what sounds like deranged mellotron before percussion, horns, guitar, clapping and more comes and goes. Catchy stuff. "Laughing Matter / Esperanza" opens with street noise that builds then the music takes over. It turns more serious after a minute. Heavier too then back to the catchy intricate sound from earlier. These contrasts continue. Intense is the word after 2 minutes. Bagpipes are prominant in the latter part of this song. Street noise ends it. "Woman Speak To men ; Men Speak To Woman" is fairly strange with intricate sounds coming and going along with those taped samples. Avant is the word here. Spoken words in this one too. An insane but very good tune.

Side two begins with "A Spit In The Ocean" which opens with some very unusual sounds(haha). The rhythm section then kicks in. This is good. Horns join in and yes they too are left of center. Great track ! "Navajo" and "Speechless" were both based on live tracks performed by MASSACRE. I really like this track and it picks up late with horns. "Balance" has these prominant drums with intricate guitar then violin. Guitar is back replacing the violin 2 1/2 minutes in but not for long. "Saving Grace" has this tribal-like drumming as strange processed vocal expressions are added. Weird stuff man. "Speechless" has some deep bass and avant sounds. It sounds like woter after 2 minutes. "Conversations With White Arc" opens with a catchy rhythm as the guitar joins in. I like this ! "Domaine De Planousset" is laid back and pleasant (gasp !). "Kick The Can (Part 2)" sounding much like the opening track but better.

A solid 4 stars and certainly HENRY COW fans or for that matter ETRON FOU LELOUBLAN fans need to check this out. This is no doubt for the adventerous music listener.

This was Fred's first solo album after leaving HENRY COW. It really is a celebration of dance from different cultures throughout the World. The original cover art was painted by Robert Wyatt's wife Alfreda Benge which incorporates the album's title "Gravity" with the subject of dance. As others have mentioned SAMMLA MAMMAS MANNA played on side one of the original vinyl (1-6) while THE MUFFINS played on side two (7-13). Fred also gets additional help from Chris Cutler, Tina Curran, Michel Berkmans (UNIVERS ZERO) and others.

"The Boy Beats The Rams" opens with some brief laughter then intricate sounds take over including this spacey atmosphere. There is a lot humour on this album and the mood is good which shouldn't be a surprise when the subject matter is dancing I suppose. Accordion comes in and then it all builds before 2 minutes. A catchy beat follows. "Spring Any Day Now" is upbeat, catchy and fun. "Don't Cry For Me" features clapping and percussion throughout then the bass, mandolin, organ and more join in. Clapping only ends it. "The Hands Of The Juggler" is one of my favourites. We get violin and a repetitive rhythm for almost 1 1/2 minutes then they change it up and the tempo picks up. Killer stuff. Drums, violin, accordion and more before 3 1/2 minutes. "Norrgarden Nyola" is such a feel good song and I really like the guitar around a minute. "Year Of The Monkey" opens with some craziness then a rhythm with guitar takes over. More craziness later.

"What A Dilemma" is another favourite of mine. An abrasive rhythm with violin leads the way and it sounds even better when the drums join in around 1 1/2 minutes. How good is this ! "Crack In The Concrete" brings to mind the word random. "Come Across" is uptempo with a good rhythm and horns. "Dancing In The Street / My Enemy Is A Bad Man" is next and the first part is an instrumental cover of that Motown song with samples of Iranians in the background who were celebrating the capture of Americans back in the day. Weird. Man it would suck to live in Iran. The second part of this two part track is mostly guitar and percussion. Cool tune. "Slap Dance" is short but I really like it. It's the brief angular guitar section before a minute that reminds me of ANEKDOTEN that does it for me. "A Career In Real Estate" contrasts the beat with violin to the more dramatic and powerful sections. "Dancing In Rockville Maryland" has these intricate and punchy sounds before it settles right down with piano 1 1/2 minutes in.

An interesting and entertaining listen that is worth 4 stars.

It's hard to actually review Fred Frith for the very first time. Probably one of the biggest geniuses of the avant-garde field, Frith manages to successfully both be a composer, a songwriter, and an improviser. Most who do enjoy his music will enjoy the more composer/ songwriter side. Frith his the uncanny ability to write very complex tunes. But the great thing about him is that he manages to mesh great pop sensibilities to his music without making them at times absolutely irresistible. This album is the epitome of Frith's pop sensibilities- one of his most accessible and fun albums, though very complex, at times dissonant, at times unnerving, and many times beautiful.

The first side here was actually recorded with "famous" RIO band Samla Mammas Manna, while the other side was recorded with US Canterbury-influenced band The Muffins, along with other dudes such as former Henry Cow bandmate and octopus drumming epic man Chris Cutler! Both sides are filled with what would become for me, Frith's easily recognizable melodies. Mad fun, always crazy, jumpy, angular, and complex. The album starts off with "The Boy Beats The Ram" which I feel is a bit of a bizarro ride of tribal drums with violins and weird guitars. Fred Frith is the master of guitar sound and his treble-y sound and distortion sounds are a big part of what makes this album great. Frith's distortion is abrasive, thick, while his clean sound is sharp, deadly precise, no funny business. The tune could turn some people off, which is funny, considering the absolutely delightful dance-pop number that comes right after "Spring Any Day Now"- which is easily one of Frith's most memorable tracks. Jazzy, kinda bluesy, with a horn section that will get you to shake you glut. Never mind that much of it is in 5/4 and never mind the weird time signature bits. It is Frith at his most charming, his most fun. It is nice to see the contrast in the first two songs as I feel it is what makes the album so entertaining- it's fun, it's humorous, lighthearted, though always a bit off, always keeping you on your toes, always taking pop music and meshing it a bit to make you slightly uncomfortable, slightly nervous.

I know these tracks so well that I can speak about each for hours, dismantling the little bits. "Don't Cry For Me" is delightfully annoying. I'd never been so happy to get a headache. Frith simplifies the melody so much, that it's almost a fly in your ear, pretty much only three notes. And along with the groovy fun bass line, it's so addicting yet so delightfully annoying that you find yourself unsure whether to dance or turn the music off! That melody can drive anyone insane, but once you get accustomed to the melody and the song, it becomes plain fun. Skipping now to "Norrgarden Nyvla" which is probably Frith's most well known tune. That is because the melody is so uplifting and unforgettable it's only natural. Frith's guitar with the piano in the background make it so uplifting. The 15/8 time signature is used so well here- the bar always ends in a sort of cliff hanger, it makes the song it much more nervous, like it is always about to fall but never does. "Year of the Monkey" picks up exactly where "Norrgarden Nyvla" left off, and again uses many layers of recording to attack the listener from many angels. The looping piano line is so cool, that with everything around it you feel like your in a smoky saloon filled with surrealists and philosophers. The recorders and the tribal drums are a good time too. The feeling as this album goes along, is that it retains the former dissonance seen in the first track. The weird guitars come back, the bizarre funky bass and the constant weird, kind of jazzy, kind of tribal drums. In "What a Dilemma" you get absolutely stormed with Frith's layers of dissonant guitars.

And then towards the end, it all becomes good fun! The tracks retain their poppy nature, their groove, while of course still being a bit of a parody on dance music. Towards the end, Frith even covers "Dancing In the Street". It ain't perfect, but the great rhythm behind it and the fun keyboard sound make it worthwhile. Suddenly it almost feels like the Residents. A slightly off melodic delivery makes the song the song feel as if Frith is actually consciously making the decision that he's interpreting the world of popular music through his eyes, he's translating it into his own musical world.

And that's what makes this album great- it is an Expressionist take on popular music and popular culture. Frith's take on avant-garde music is always challenging, but it is many times fun, and more interestingly, socially conscious, which make the music make sense, and give the album it's own great sense humor.

You want Frith, you start here.

After hearing Fred Frith's first solo album Guitar Solos, I wasn't sure what to think. Despite being a big fan of Frith's work in various other groups, that first album, while certainly innovative and experimental, didn't strike me as particularly interesting to listen to. Despite this rather lukewarm first impression, I decided to give this album a chance after reading that Frith had described it as a "dance" album, with influences from folk and world music.

Indeed, I would say that this is a marked improvement over Guitar Solos. Infinitely more fun to listen to, there's nonetheless a wild spirit of adventure and experimentation that makes this the perfect blend of avant and accessible. There's a lot of variety on Gravity, from eastern European folk dances to chaotic and experimental soundscapes. A great album from a great musician.

"The Boy Beats the Rams" begins with a bit of a noisy blend of percussion and other sound effects before a faint, somewhat eastern sounding string part strikes up. This is joined by some rather atonal guitar and the track takes on a decidedly dissonant tone. Despite this, it's not hard to listen to at all, though it does feel more like an introduction to the rest of the album than it does a standalone track. It's still a very interesting listen, however; it's a nice avant opening to the album and a cool piece of experimental music.

"Spring Any Day Now" is a much more accessible track, with a very cheery, even catchy melody starting off immediately. A variety of wind instruments, guitars, and percussion create a very musically dense track, making the main melodies sound deceptively simple. To me this track really sounds like a sort of combination between the surf rock of the 60s and folk- dance music; it's an incredibly bizarre combination that nonetheless works.

"Don't Cry For Me" begins with the same kind of minimal percussion that began "The Boy Beats the Rams," but this track takes a more structured direction, combining a strong bass line with multiple guitar and keyboard parts to create a kind of avant-folk aesthetic. Strong melodies abound, but at the same time there's a lot of very weird arrangement that gives the music a fascinating experimental edge. The track concludes with a recording of some noisy clapping and other sound effects that transitions into the next track.

"Hands of the Juggler" is another great track that combines a lot of the sound and instrumentation of folk music with Frith's off kilter, experimental tendencies. This experimental side is perhaps more explicit than on the previous two tracks, with a middle section that features increasingly crazed percussion, and dreamy and dissonant chords. This section transitions beautifully into another eastern folk dance section, with what sounds like a violin backed by bass and, of all things, accordion. It's this instrumentation that plays the track out, finally giving way to a bizarre but strangely fitting outtro that consists of some chanting vocals and what sounds like a timpani.

This outtro makes another seamless transition into "Norrgarden Nyvla," one of my favorite tracks on the album. With one of the outright catchiest melodies I've ever heard from Frith, this track is just so cheerful and charming, in addition to being perfectly arranged that even the bizarre electric guitar solos don't detract from its accessibility. This is the poster child in my mind for great, accessible, experimental music: far less difficult than anything on Guitar Solos or any of Henry Cow's albums, "Norrgarden Nyvla" is still a great, experimental track that blends genres and mixes styles to create incredibly appealing music.

"Year of The Monkey" comes next, going back to a more explicitly experimental style. Chaotic and atonal music makes up about the first 30 seconds of the track before a keyboard part comes in that almost has a carnival vibe to it. Various string sounds and of course guitars add additional music behind the repeating keyboard motif, and eventually a noisy chorus of wind instruments takes over in a way that reminds me of some of the music on The United States of America's self titled album.

"What A Dilemma" begins with distorted, dissonant guitars pounding out a rhythmic chord pattern while other instruments solo over this background. This is probably the closest to the wild experimentation of Guitar Solos that Gravity comes, but even so it begins to take on a more standard form midway through the song, as the distorted riffs are traded in for a bass line and a more melodic guitar part. As these parts are being developed and a bit of the distortion and dissonance begin to return, the track ends, very suddenly kicking off the next piece.

"Crack In The Concrete" is another strange track, with a very avant-jazz sort of feeling compared to the folkier sound of many of the earlier tracks. It's also very short, with only about a minute and a half of bass-backed, experimental guitar music before the track comes to an end.

"Come Across" kicks off with a great, driving piano and bass part that are quickly joined by some winds and guitar. This is another of my favorite tracks on the album, by turns jazzy, cinematic, and decidedly avant-garde. Several great solos help the track set itself apart, with multiple instruments taking the front of the stage throughout the track before finally ending in a dreamy fadeout.

"Dancing in the Street/My Enemy Is a Bad Man" comes next, starting off with percussion and what is either a keyboard or a very distorted guitar playing over a somewhat noisy blend of sound effects. It's a fairly melodic piece despite its very avant, bizarre instrumentation; while at times the background noise comes close to taking over the track the melody is always at the front of the mix. When the motif switches midway through it takes on a much happier disposition, with guitar and piano cheerfully dueting in a way that recalls the carefree music of the early days of rock and roll. The track fades out as these instruments continue to play before finally ending in silence.

"Slap Dance" sounds like its name would suggest: the folk dance theme is back, though shades of atonality keep the listener ever so slightly off-balance. This motif is occasionally interrupted by a more melodic saxophone melody that gives the track a nice sense of balance between order and chaos. The bass makes another great appearance here as well, keeping the track firmly grounded rhythmically even when it's at its craziest.

"A Career In Real Estate" returns to a very folky feel, though it eschews the eastern European vibe for one far more rooted in Americana. A very loose, pitch-sliding violin part recalls to my ears Appalachian folk music, whether that is an intentional influence or not. This folky motif is alternated with a much darker, ominous, distorted guitar-led theme that very much gives the track a "dark/light" sort of melodic conflict that's very interesting to listen to. It is on this latter theme that the track ends before the last track begins.

The album ends on "Dancing in Rockville, Maryland," a very experimental sounding track without a lot that you could point to and call "melody." Bass, guitars and percussion create a noisy amalgamation of sound for the first section of the track. Eventually, however, a rather serene piano part takes center stage, and the rest of the instruments fall away, leaving only the keyboard to carry the track to its conclusion and the conclusion of the album.

This, I think, is the place to start if you want to get a feel for Frith's solo music. I would argue that this is even more approachable than a lot of Henry Cow stuff, and in my opinion it's far more interesting than Guitar Solos. A great album for fans of avant-garde music and perhaps even a good entry point for those who have found the genre daunting in the past.

4/5