Slapp Happy/Henry Cow Desperate Straights

[Scrotum Scissor]

even the quasi-clumsy fade-out (as I recall it) is acceptable since the whole piece has the uncanny feeling of stumbling along into infinity...

For more of that, check the surreal audio-images of L'Ensemble Rayé - more of that strangely amusing yet uncanny drift into the unknown.

[Buddhabreath]

^^^

I've heard a bit and liked what I heard. I'll check it out, thanks for the recommendation.

[Progbear]

Fans of this album should at least try some of Peter Blegvad’s post-SH projects. Everyone already knows Kew. Rhone. but the Lodge album—Smell of a Friend—seriously needs more love. I can’t believe an album this radical got released on a major label (or a subsidiary of one, anyway) in 1988!

[calyx]

The Lodge album was released thanks to Jean-Pierre Weiller, who had already released two solo albums by Greaves on Europa and reissued Kew.Rhone. He was then running the Antilles label for Chris Blackwell at Island.

[regenerativemusic]

Fans of this album should at least try some of Peter Blegvad’s post-SH projects. Everyone already knows Kew. Rhone. but the Lodge album—Smell of a Friend—seriously needs more love. I can’t believe an album this radical got released on a major label (or a subsidiary of one, anyway) in 1988!

Not as bad as some others from outstanding projects doing solo but Slap Happy in places has a certain magic that's unique. It might have been the sheer force of all those people adding to the chemistry.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Not as bad as some others from outstanding projects doing solo

Kew. Rhone. is, to my ears, an absolutely unique artifact from the outskirts of 'seriously heavy' 70s leftfield progressive rock - and a complete classic at that. Musically it was (mostly) Greaves' work though, with Blegvad doing lyrics. Still the merger of melodic big band chamber-jazz sonorities and dense avant-garde rock antics sounds like little else from that decade, released as it was in '76. Of course, Blegvad solo became a cultish phenom much more in the personae of a 'witty cerebral singer-songwriter' than an art-rock one, so the Smell of a Friend album does stand out as something peculiar and particular in his oeuvre.

[Kcrimso]

[I]Of course, Blegvad solo became a cultish phenom much more in the personae of a 'witty cerebral singer-songwriter' than an art-rock one, so the Smell of a Friend album does stand out as something peculiar and particular in his oeuvre.

But music on Smell Of A Friend is by John Greaves. Blegvad is credited only for lyrics.

[calyx]

Part of Smell Of A Friend was written in Vermont in 1980 in an ill-fated attempt to create a sequel to Kew.Rhone. Some material like Milk dates back even further as it was played live in 1978.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Part of Smell Of A Friend was written in Vermont in 1980 in an ill-fated attempt to create a sequel to Kew.Rhone.

Yup, I haven't been listening to it for years and years but now on return I get the picture, and I was mistaken. Very odd sounding (albeit not really in the sense of Kew. Rhone.), and very obviously nothing like any of the (later) Blegvad solo records as such. Of course, Greaves himself actually has alternated between heavily "arty" stuff and more intimate songwriting.

[regenerativemusic]

Kew. Rhone. is, to my ears, an absolutely unique artifact from the outskirts of 'seriously heavy' 70s leftfield progressive rock - and a complete classic at that. Musically it was (mostly) Greaves' work though, with Blegvad doing lyrics. Still the merger of melodic big band chamber-jazz sonorities and dense avant-garde rock antics sounds like little else from that decade, released as it was in '76. Of course, Blegvad solo became a cultish phenom much more in the personae of a 'witty cerebral singer-songwriter' than an art-rock one, so the Smell of a Friend album does stand out as something peculiar and particular in his oeuvre.

Blegvad put out some books, one is selling for $1 for several copies. One is based on this album.

http://used.addall.com/SuperRare/Ref...le=&exaAuthor=

[regenerativemusic]

Dagmar Krause - Supply & Demand: Songs By Brecht, Weill & Eisler [Full Album]

This has my favorite music outside of Slapp Happy.

[Steve F.]

Blegvad put out some books, one is selling for $1 for several copies. One is based on this album.

Leviathan is a brilliant book and series. Stunningly great.

[flytomars]

Re Slapp Happy: there seems to be a show scheduled for May 18, double bill with Faust, only this time the backing "band" is drummer extraordinare Guigou Chenevier!

[Mister Triscuits]

How funny to see this thread reappear right after I played the album.

[Steve F.]

Re Slapp Happy: there seems to be a show scheduled for May 18, double bill with Faust, only this time the backing "band" is drummer extraordinare Guigou Chenevier!

That's great and great to see Guigou included.

[Buddhabreath]

Great interview AND most of this are songs from an excellent concert they did last year in Brussels. Brilliant!
http://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/...vad-interview/