Null & Fred Frith – "Null & Fred Frith" (Nux Organization – NUX-21) 1991

If you can't get Brian Eno for your cred cornering collaboration,the next best thing is to procure the ,cheaper,talents of one Fred Frith late of everyone's favourite post-prog art-rock combo, Henry Cow.He has a natural oblique strategies gland inside his front Brain,and can play at least one instrument,if desired;so no need for Eno's famed pack of cards to ever leave the draw.....unless David Bowie wanted them of course...what David wants David gets.....or steals.

Frith brings a more subtle approach to the noise,and side A sounds more like yer Free Improvisation kind of Noise, a noise with nuances if you will?

Woah...side B goes unexpectedly subtle,verging on the Eno's ambient period,with its floaty textures and Atmospheric noodlings.

Who needs Eno anyway?

Tracklist:

Side A : 20000V Live (27:43)

Side B : Heavens Breath (15:32)

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Henry Cow – "A Cow Cabinet Of Curiosities" (ReR Megacorp – HC1000) 2009

All you lot already have all the Henry Cow albums right?...bit of a shit band name really innit?

Never liked portrayals of socks either.

Just the name 'enry cow invokes within me the whiff of patchouli oil joss sticks and ethnic art objects;not because 'Enry were a bunch of smelly hippies,quite the opposite...almost.....the basement shop that i first encountered album sleeves with unpleasant reimaginings of socks aboard was situated underneath the most unashamedly Hippie apothecary in post-punk Leicester....the "Very Bazaar"...geddit?....Underneath the whiffy smokey atmosphere of street level Very Bazaar,lay the only place in Leicester you could buy Whitehouse records,Recommended Records, Half Japanese, reggae Dub 10 inchers,The Residents  ,and Henry Cow!?.... When i got my first Dole Giro, to the value of 32 quid...I cashed it in, got on my Bike and went to the subterranean Very Bazaar record shop,with its matt black painted brick decor and homemade record racks.(the upstairs bit still exists!?)A bit as i imagine a gift shop run by Crass would have looked. The record bit was ran by an amiable mustachioed chap called Steve,and Lydon's mate ,Jock MacDonald's brother Martin,who loved Lynard Skynard previously, before he encountered johnny Rotten in the Pub next door to the shop (the Globe),then suddenly he became a Punk Rocker overnight.The record shop also became a one room Bollock Brothers tribute ,as brother Jock was a member.Last i heard of Martin he was wanted in Greece for drug offences,and was running away to hideout in Ireland.

Anyway, I digress;on giro(my benefits cheque) day,I came away with, the Cravats In Toytown, This Heat's Deceit, Metabolist "Hansten Klork","Whitehouse's Dedicated to Peter Kurten in yellow vinyl, and Henry Cow's "In Praise Of Learning". I think there may have been a Pink Military 12inch in there too.....ah blood and lipstick.And i still had two quid left for a lemon split bun and an ice cream soda,how punk rock is that(?) from Brucciani's....RIP!

So,as you lot have already got everything by 'Enry, here's that limited edition bonus disc from the 50th anniversary box set thingy, which you've already got of course. If you haven't i might upload the box set with an iTunes style bit rate of 192k,'cus it's massive and i'm running out of storage space.

Here's a 1972 style review of the album to finish:

"Track one sounds like Soft Machine,but the rest doesn't."

Notes:

Tracks 1 & 2: recorded in our rehearsal place probably in 1972
Tracks 3, 4, 5 & 6: extracted from a forgotten tape I gave to Steve Feigenbaum in 1978. The original recordings were presumably made on cassettes run from the mixing desk.
Track 7: out-take from "In Praise Of Learning" mixed by Tim Hodgkinson at Cold Storage in 1984.
Tracks 8, 9 & 10: recorded at a public concert for NDR Jazz Workshop, Hamburg on 26th March, 1976
Track 11: recorded at a public concert at the Sendesaal, Studio F, Radio Bremen, on 22nd of March, 1978, for New Jazz Live.
Track 12: extract from an Unrest out-take mixed by Tim Hodgkinson at Cold Storage in 1984.

Tracklist:

1 Pre Virgin Demo 1 3:55
2 Pre Virgin Demo 2 1:02
3 Unidentified Improvisation 1 1:30
4 Unidentified Improvisation 2 5:37
5 Unidentified Late Composition 2:04
6 Exploded Amygdala / Teen Introduction 3:37
7 Lovers Of Gold 6:29
8 Hamburg 6 5:33
9 Ruins Extract 8:24
10 Hamburg 7 9:44
11 Half The Sky 5:03
12 Extract From The Glove 2:19

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Derek Bailey, Fred Frith, Sonny Sharrock, John Zorn, Bill Laswell, Charles K. Noyes ‎– "Improvised Music 1981" (MuWorks Records ‎– MU W 1007) 1992

Sonny Sharrock with some downtown Manhattan artsy fartsy buddies from the IN-crowd. Or as the cognitively dissonant Redneck Trump supporting bastards would have it...Satan musick made by a bunch of Democrat supporting  Athiests and a Nigger,with a pair of Intifa Limey's who want to burn down the Whitehouse again,then spread their communism in the stolen state of Georgia...(the place named after George the Third,rather than Donald the Turd,the man who would be King)....and reinstate the Monarchy! USA,USA,USA!

Whenever I say anything,no matter how satirical;they,(white supremacists,NRA members,and bible belt xians etc) can't get satire,or even know what it is!Any satire,sarchasm,or irony ejaculated in the general direction of these poor manipulated oafs, usually gets one a torrent of potty mouthed abuse.So i'm strongly considering No-Platforming the bastards...no matter how stupid they make themselves look....along with the guy who keeps writing 'Penis'in the comments section. I'm sure Sonny Sharrock would agree,at least about the Racist fuckers.......Ok Sonny's Ghost, I'll let the 'Penis Guy' back!

Anyway,as those baseball cap wearing cro-maga-non cavemen only listen to Garth Brooks,who is, ironically, playing at Biden's inauguration today; I doubt they'll fine (sic) their way to a Free-Improvisation post on DieorDIY? They'd fight each other to play this record backwards and reveal the satanic messages hidden in the grooves to justify an attempted assasination of the President elect today.Any bunch of fools who can hear the words "You Lost" as "You Won!" shouldn't have any trouble finding a message to rival the "Turn Me On Deadman" that the twats' Twat himsrlf, Michael Mills, found in the Beatles White Album!?....I'm ashamed to be Human.

But blimey! Three improvising guitarists on one record.....that must be an...er......Record?...Surely?

Recorded Live at 'The Kitchen'.....where else?....in 1981. Even Laswell is suitably subtle.

Altogether now....USA,USA,usa,usa,usa.......suddenly I feel very alone.

Tracklist:

1 Untitled 1:21
2 Untitled 5:03
3 Untitled 4:32
4 Untitled 5:48
5 Untitled 6:40
6 Untitled 5:44
7 Untitled 3:48

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John White / Gavin Bryars ‎– "Machine Music" (Obscure ‎– OBS 8) 1978

John White was in the Scratch Orchestra as far as i'm aware,but apart from that this was his obscure moment in the murky moonlight. In my local cheapo shop there's a nasty brand of aftershave called "Murky Moon",and if it was ever advertised on TV the perfect soundtrack to the drunkards aroma of choice would be John White's eerie "Drinking And Hooting Machine",played out on a bunch of empty beer bottles.Whether the beer was snaffled by our Avant-Garde heroes is another unanswered question .I'd like to think that, yes, is the answer.You can't get more avant-Garde or as inspired as a drunk artist.Even as I type i have a beer in hand to accompany my beret and sandels to complete my avant-gardist cred.
The rest of the tracks don't live up to the bottle blowin'one which would probably be the avant version of 'the Single' from the album?
There's not much actual machine music involved which is a relief,as the modern day yoof (sic) listen to nothing but 'machine music',as slowly we are replaced by thinking 'feeling' robotics.No robots on this,just greats that will never be replaced like Fred Frith, Derek Bailey and Brian Eno;who all play guitars on the Gavin Bryars side. A tune which also appears, bizzarely on Bailey's first solo guitar album from 1971.
Oh Yeah.....the minimalist bit (yawn) is track two,which is a Steve Reich-a-like piano number....very nice,but this is a better album than any of Steve's because its less up its own fucking arse!?

Tracklist:

A1 –John White Autumn Countdown Machine
A2 –John White Son Of Gothic Chord
A3 –John White Jew's Harp Machine
A4 –John White Drinking And Hooting Machine

B –Gavin Bryars The Squirrel And The Ricketty Racketty Bridge

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Bongwater ‎– "Breaking No New Ground!" (Shimmy Disc ‎– shimmy 0002) 1987

Ironically with a title that could grace many a modern record sleeve.Post Shockabilly, Kramer did Bongwater, with the rather fantastic Ann Magnuson.Starting with this EP, featuring, no less,avant-garde guitar legends Fred Frith and Davey Williams!
Magnuson, was a downtown scenester and actress,whose profile was raised by her dalliances with the Mudd Club and Club 57.....it says here.She was also in 'desperately Seeking Susan', but best keep quiet about that one eh?
Her and Kramer seemed the perfect match,with Ann's unhinged satirical monologues and Mark Kramers rather unusual backing tracks;which actually manage to be funny and break new ground?
It all went so terribly wrong when legal action between the two cheif protagonists ended in the Bankruptcy of Shimmy Disc.
Curiously around the time your scribe attended the Shimmy Disc 10th anniversary party at the Knitting Factory (1997).I have no-idea who played at it, but they did serve Boddingtons at the bar.

Jay Zee,ie moi ,the  morning after that shimmy disc do,indulging in traditional american cusine.

Tracklist:

1.Ride My See-Saw
2.Barely Coping
3.4 Sticks
4.U.S.O.
5.His New Look
6.Julia

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Skeleton Crew ‎– "Learn To Talk" (Recommended Records ‎– rm 02) 1984

Improvisers always end up playing with each other,and effortlessly turn out composed pieces to show that they can do it too, if they wanted.
Luckily for us ,'The Listening Public', Fred frith and Tom Cora decided to make us this Avant-pop classic.The virtuosity,the difficult ever changing time signatures,and mental ward vocals, do not distract from the greatness of this record.Like a cross between XTC and Egg, its the kind of prog-pop that could have hit some charts a few years earlier.

Tracklist:

1 Que Viva/Onwards And Upwards 7:37
2 The Way Things Fall (Back Apart) 2:36
3 Not My Shoes 2:14
4 The Washington Post 1:28
5 We're Still Free 4:16
6 Victoryville 2:43

7 Los Colitos/Life At The Top 4:35
8 Learn To Talk 3:40
9 Factory Song 5:13
10 It's Fine 4:22
11 Zach's Flag 3:10

12 Sick as a Parrot 2:58

13 Automatic Pilot 1:27

14 Hook 2:15

15 Killing Time 2:26

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Hans Reichel - "Duets With Fred Frith And Kazuhisa Uchihashi" ‎ (FMP ‎– FMP CD 36) 1991

'The Frith Reich', is the best Jeu de Mot I can come up with for this one. However, if this existed in one of the earlier 'Reichs', especially the one after the second one.It would have been firmly labelled as 'Degenerate' and burnt. Whereas, it is usually the actual 'degenerates' who are quick to reject things they don't understand and compartmentlise it as the thing they most despise about themselves.For example, the morons who leave a pub because a perfectly inoffensive Robert Wyatt record comes on the jukebox,who are the same lazy work-shy bastards who blame foreign workers for taking the jobs they don't want to do. Same People, same stupidity.
No, this don't sound like Coldplay,and that is the principle reason for its existence.....to strive for something new,and move forward, or sideways,but never backward.
Yeah, there's a place for Coldplay,ying needs its yang,and nature needs balance.Sadly the natural balance is heavily weighted on the popular music, and popular politics side of the cesspool.
So start Complaining about the sundown of civilisation before its too late.

Tracklist:

1-Stop Complaining (36:27)
 Section I 3:10
 Section II 6:31
 Section III 3:28
 Section IV 3:07
 Section V 4:10
 Section VI 5:10
 Section VII 3:22
 Section VIII 2:32
 Section IX 4:57
2-Sundown 35:01

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Fred Frith / Henry Kaiser ‎– "With Friends Like These" (Metalanguage ‎– ML 107) 1979

Play this to your friends and you'll soon find out which ones are genuine.The ones who can't at least appreciate the experimental approach on offer should be kicked to the curb anyway, the ones that remain in the room have potential.
I've heard far more room clearing records than this one, but I thought, taking the album title into account, that it was an appropraite angle to take my speil on.
Of course I don't mean you to be as shallow as to choose your friends by musical ordeal, although it may be fun.Its best to do it to strangers in a public place.....'Wyatting' I think it has been called by some broadsheet journalist after witnessing the pub emptying qualities of Robert Wyatt's 'Dondestan' album?!...don't get it myself, as this Wyatt album is rather pleasant and mellow;although I understand that the public would have difficulty in accepting Robert's vocal abilities as listenable. Which is strange, because I frequently put forward the great mans name as my singer of preference!?
I doubt any Pub jukebox would be allowed to play the entirety of any of the tracks on this collaboration.
"That ain't Music", said the ruddy faced moron in the union jack t-shirt.
"Don't call that Guitar playing do ya?" slobbered the guy with the missing two front teeth as he salivated into the dregs of his stella Artois.
"We didn't get our fucking country back to listen to this foreign shit", said the apoplectic gammon with the 'Brexit means Brexit' badge, shaking with barely controllable rage!Which sends him into a Liam Neeson style fit of violent revenge as he storms out of the bar looking for foreigners.
The Pub is now ,thankfully empty, and the remaining three persons can now repopulate the establishment with brain cells.

Tracklist:

AA It Moves ... 2:00
AB The Changing Of Names 5:45
AC It Sings 5:40
AD Believing What We Read 3:00
AE ...But Does It Swing ? 3:30
BF Twisted Memories Give Way To The Angry Present 3:50
BG Black Glass 5:30
BH Third Rail 3:25
BI Three Languages 9:30

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Fred Frith ‎– "Guitar Solos" (Caroline Records ‎– C 1508) 1974

With an album cover set in the very English setting of a cricket pitch,and the very English take on the electric guitar, One would expect a very perpendicular angle away from rock'n'roll culture, but unfortunately Virgin/caroline stick very closely to the traditional sexual exploitation angle with the label logo featuring a naked pubescent girl.Rather like the cover of that inexcusable 'Blind Faith' album, and that fucking horrific Scorpions album cover, "Virgin Killer".Real life versions of Spinal Taps "Smell The Glove" album cover.
 All those hideous bastards were at it. Once the historic sexual abuse mob turns its attention away from Hollywood and on to the creepy world of Rock Music,there's gonna be no-one left out of jail to make their awful racket ever again....which is a good thing.
Not that Fred Frith had anything to do with it. Coming from the intelligent section of the musical pie,the music on this Solo LP has as little to do with Rock music, and Frith had to do with under-age sex.....ie Nothing....I hope! Its bad enough that I can't sing the praises of Gary Glitter anymore, never mind Fred Frith or Henry Cow!

Tracklist:

A1 Hello Music 1:31
A2 Glass C/W Steel 5:35
A3 Ghosts 3:12
A4 Out Of Their Heads (On Locoweed) 8:24
B1 Not Forgotten 1:55
B2 Hollow Music 2:44
B3 Heat C/W Moment 1:43
B4 No Birds 12:46

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Bailey, Frith, Fitzgerald, Reichel ‎– "Guitar Solos 2" (Caroline Records ‎– C 1518) 1976

From the days of recommended retail prices,cut price loss leaders, and when Richard Branson released weird records (Caroline being a Virgin offshoot), instead of trying to fly billionaires into space.Here's a cheap attempt to fly spotty young men from their bedrooms into a obscure headspace of avant garde improvisation using the seemingly unlimited potential of the humble guitar.
Yes, Derek Bailey was,briefly, on a Virgin Records release, and shares this compilation with a few of his acolytes and his West German equivalent, Hans Reichel;not to be confused with Krautrock guitar hero Achim Reichel of 'A.R.and Machines'.Hans style involves a lot of hammering the strings like a dulcimer, or the thinking man's Eddie Van Halen. Achim, used Echo boxes a lot, like Pink Floyd or Manuel Gottsching of Ash Ra Tempel;not as innovative as his namesake, but rather effective none the less.
No Idea who G.F. Fitzgerald was or is,but he obviously digged Derek Bailey somewhat.
Virgin contractee Fred Frith gets the opening birth,to try and push some rare sales of 'Henry Cow' product;but shows plenty of the invention that got him on Ralph Records, and to play on some Residents records, and later with John Zorn.
Why is this solos number '2', when Solos Number '1' was basically a Fred Frith solo album, I don't know?
I expect, there would have been at least a few hairy yoofs who bought this expecting sidelong Hendrix style solos and got a terrible shock, wanting a refund of their £1.49?.....NO hairy Youth NO!

Tracklist:

A1 –Fred Frith - Water / Struggle / The North 11:05
A2 –Fred Frith - Only Reflect 4:00
A3 –G.F. Fitzgerald - Brixton Winter 1976 9:40
B1 –Hans Reichel - Avantlore 3:05
B2 –Hans Reichel - Vain Yookts 3:00
B3 –Hans Reichel - Donnerkuhle 5:05
B4 –Derek Bailey - Virginal 6:20
B5 –Derek Bailey - Praxis 4:00
B6 –Derek Bailey - The Lost Chord 1:50

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