Fred Frith

[Munster]

Stumbled across the Fred Records story boxes on Bandcamp. Are they a good introduction?

I've listened to Guitar Solos and Nowhere/Sideshow/Thin Air and enjoyed them generally.

The boxsets (there are three boxes and if you buy them all together there is an extra bonus CD thrown in) are more than an introduction to Frith’s recording output, they are an opportunity for total immersion in some very good music. He is massively prolific, so this is not everything he has released, obviously. But the three boxes contain 26 CD albums (two of them double) of Frith’s work released on his own label, Fred Records. The styles vary hugely; from his solo recordings, to ballet and film scores and to his work with various other musicians.

ReR does good boxsets and this one is no exception. Each box has a very informative booklet where Frith discusses every album at length. Unlike the Henry Cow boxset, where the various CDs were enclosed in plastic wallets, each CD in these boxes is in its original packaging. It would be useful to read back on this thread to get various opinions of what other PE listeners think of the individual albums, which have been around for some time. I have found his violin work really pleasurable.

There is a lot to get through and finding time to listen to everything is a challenge. At the moment I am having a breather before tackling box three. In the two boxes I have listened to so far there are some amazing albums that I will return to repeatedly and one or two (a very small proportion) that I may not listen to for some time. Some are more challenging to listen to than to others and some are like nothing I have heard before, but each album has been exceptional.

[tallliman]

Thanks Munster - I'm listening to the sampler tracks on Bandcamp and enjoying it. I've read through this thread but so many videos and too little time to listen! I find I listen mostly on portable devices still so need the music on my person a lot.

[pb2015]

Thanks Munster - I'm listening to the sampler tracks on Bandcamp and enjoying it. I've read through this thread but so many videos and too little time to listen! I find I listen mostly on portable devices still so need the music on my person a lot.

Start with Gravity and Speechless.

[tallliman]

Gravity is amazing!!

[Munster]

Resuming listening to box three of the Fred Records story today I heard Propaganda (excellent and up there with my favourites in the boxset) and Allies (excellent too). In the booklet there is this quote from Frith, who is talking about Allies. To me, it sums up what the music in all three boxes of the boxset is about: “In a way I always want to unsettle thing. I find it hard to avoid. I don’t really like work that sounds finished. I like endings to be suggestive of beginnings. If you listen to the kinds of tunes I write they often end in quite unlikely places – a phrase that seems to be going somewhere and doesn’t, a question mark. I really like that quality in a melody.”

Hearing Frith’s guitar on Allies, I also realised how little overt guitar playing there is on his Fred Records output (apart from the “guitar solo” albums, and even those albums test the boundaries of what a guitar "should" sound like). He is largely known as a guitarist. But I think his real strength is in composition and musical innovation, particularly with his use of found sound.

[alucard]

Interesting interview with Fred Frith

[tallliman]

I'll have to listen to that interview tomorrow, 3 box sets purchased.

I also watched the Henry Cow performance from 76. Some nicely complex songs there.

[jkelman]

It would be useful to read back on this thread to get various opinions of what other PE listeners think of the individual albums, which have been around for some time. I have found his violin work really pleasurable.

FWIW, before and after I reviewed the 40th Anniversary Cow Box in 2009, I covered a handful of Frith albums, some in the Fred Records boxes (which I've purchased and wow, are they ever worth it!):

Eleventh Hour
The Happy End Problem
Nowhere / Slideshow / Thin Air
Cosa Brava, Ragged Atlas

[tallliman]

Thanks John, I stumbled across those before I bought the boxes.

Will you be reviewing the boxes at all?

The boxes just arrived for me today - so much music I'm not sure where to start!!