Text Of Festival (2)

More memories from years of sonic attack.....

Gig no.2 - 22/01/76 - Genesis - De Montfort Hall, Leicester
The second gig I went to was to see Genesis at Leicester De Montfort Hall on the Trick Of The Tail tour, just before the album came out if memory serves. I can remember being gutted when Peter Gabriel left the band the previous year partly because I loved his wacky lyrics and the much needed showmanship he brought to the scholarly bunch that were most of the rest of the band. Steve Hackett used to SIT DOWN to play his guitar, the nerd! I missed Gabriel mostly because it meant I never got to see the "classic" line up of what was at the time probably my second fave band, after Led Zeppelin.

I need not have worried as Phil Collins although finding his feet as a frontman gave a great performance and the band played a lot from the Gabriel era including the magnificent but barking Supper's Ready, which worked even without PG's famous costume changes.

Trick Of The Tail soon became played to death in the sixth form common room, and I quickly grew tired of it, and never bought another Genesis record (new anyway) as they descended into pop mediocrity. Such a shame.
...........................................................................................

Gig no.6 - 12/11/76 - Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers - County Ground, Northampton
The guitarist from the permanently druggy New York Dolls formed an equally shambolic outfit of his own at the beginning of the UK punk explosion, and to that point they were the loudest band I had ever heard. Can't remember that much about it apart from the sheer volume, used to drown out their severe musical limitations I've no doubt.

The County Ground venue was a barn of a building that was normally used by Northants Cricket Club for indoor net practice, said nets were strung across the ceiling when not in use. The stage was at one end of the rectangular space, and 30 yards opposite was the bar. The sparse crowd to see Mr Thunders' combo were all pinned to said bar by the unrelenting racket coming form the other end of the hall. I think I vaguely recognised Chinese Rocks at some point, the rest was completely indecipherable!

I mention the nets being strung across the ceiling, because another memorable night at the venue was the visit of Generation X in 1978. Not for the music, but because Billy Idol climbed up the lighting rigging at the side of the stage and up into the netting during a song, and promptly got stuck. It took him about 10 minutes to extricate himself, while his band played gamely on.
..........................................................................................

Gig no.14 - 24/06/78 - Genesis at Knebworth
By now I had gone off Genesis, but hey - it was a day out and there were gurls involved, and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were on the bill, and a weird band from Akron Ohio called Devo, whose Stiff singles were fascinating listening. Not for the vast majority of prog fans though unfortunately, who almost as soon as the band appeared started throwing anything they could lay their hands on at the mischievous Yanks. Attired in boiler suits with what from a distance looked like flowerpots on their heads, they all stopped playing mid-song, lined up on the stage, all bent over and as one, pointed to their heads. The fusillade of missiles was inevitable. Gig goers back then, particularly at festivals, were an intolerant bunch of narrow minded poltroons!
..........................................................................................

Gig no.26 - 18/10/78 - Tom Robinson Band - Warwick University
Then at the height of his popularity, Tom could somehow get packed audiences of callow youth shouting along the words "Sing If You're Glad To Be Gay" to the song of the same name, me included. Odd. Odder still is that the outer-than-out Tom Robinson later got married - to a woman I hasten to add!
..........................................................................................

Gig no. 35 - 9/12/78 - Ultravox! - County Ground, Northampton
This was the real John Foxx led band, not the tiresome Midge Ure pop version. Not that I knew it at the time, this lot were heavily influenced by Krautrock, Can & Neu! (the ! was their homage) in particular, and to my naive ears made a rather special noise. RockWrok! Mr Foxx autographed my ticket, which I promptly lost.
..........................................................................................

Gig no.49 - 8/04/79 - Motorhead - De Montfort Hall, Leicester
Ahh, Motorhead - the main reason I'm as deaf as post. Loud as f**k, we saw them more than 10 times in the space of two years. "What? Eh? Half-past three."
An irresistible combination of biker metal & punk, featuring "Fast" Eddie Clark on howling geetar and biker threads, and Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor on drums, so named because of his similarity in style to Animal from The Muppets, and of course ex-Hawkwind bass grinder and proto metal grunter Lemmy, this band made a holy racket that appealed to greasers and punks and everyone in between in equal measure. This gig was on the Bomber tour of 1979 and was a stone dead classic, including the steel framed bomber being hoisted aloft lights ablaze during the song of the same name. A Spinal Tap moment.
.........................................................................................

Part 3 to follow............................

Text Of Festival

Gigs. I've been to over 250 in my 50 years on this planet, and it was my main leisure activity for a long period of my life. I say "was" because this year so far I've been to but one gig (reviewed here  http://toysoutofthepram.blogspot.com/2010/04/gigtastic-3-jerry-dammers-spatial-aka.html ), although there is a long anticipated concert by Porcupine Tree at The Royal Albert Hall coming up next month. In 1979 I went to 28, and that's just the ones I could recall or had ticket stubs from when I first started keeping a list in about 1985. The actual total to date is probably at least 20 more than the 261 recorded.

The title of this ramble is taken from a 1983 Hawkwind live album. Hawkwind are the makers of what in my opinion is the best live album of all time, 1973's Space Ritual, now available in expanded form on remastered CD. A must have for any collection. Despite this I never saw the 'Wind in their prime, although I did catch the punked up version Hawklords in 1979. In fact one of the worst gigs I have ever witnessed was the modern day Hawkwind in 2004. Then reduced to a three piece of guitar, bass & drums, 90% of the music was on a backing tape (showing my age there - it was probably on a laptop!), and it all sounded dull and uninspiring.

The first gig I went to was Wizzard at Kettering Granada cinema on the 22nd March 1974. Can't remember much about it other than that we had arranged to be picked up by my mate's mum at a prearranged time, and so had to leave before the end, and judging by the number of early teens like us getting up and leaving at various stages throughout the show, we weren't the only ones! There must have been only ten people in the audience by the end! Wizzard Brew is actually a rather good album and shows the direction ELO might have taken had Roy Wood not left and Jeff Lynne's Beatle fixation become the dominant influence.

Highlights of my gig going? well, this could not be topped by following The Clash around the country for a few weeks in the summer of '78 between finishing work experience and starting my first proper job. They were a band that were completely relevant to the times they lived in and hit the zeitgeist like no other band in my lifetime. And they knew how to party! I learned more about life in those few short weeks than in all my previous 18 years - say no more!

The House Of Love at The Royal Albert Hall, 1992 - simply stunning sound in a great setting. Hope it's repeated for Porcupine Tree next month. HoL also handed fans a free gig only 10 inch single on entry by way of apology as the gig had been postponed from an earlier date. The single has a long giutar wig out version of Into The Tunnel which as far as I know was never released anywhere else, and a demo version of Crush Me. I must get round to transferring it to mp3.

King Crimson at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire in 2000 was a very loud 2 hour aural assault of top notch musicianship. The audience were mostly all over 50!

The Stone Roses at The Roadmender, Northampton, 1989, about a week after the first album came out. The place was packed like a sardine can, condensation was dripping off the ceiling and down the walls, and the band were amazing. Ian Brown actually sang in tune too!

There are actually too many highlights to mention, and I have seen some proper shite in my time as well. My early years of gig going were largely dictated by the musical taste of the only one of us who could drive. Steve was a longhair hard rock and metal fan from Rushden. I can still remember the aroma of rock/metal gigs in the late 70s. A mixture of worn leather, unwashed denim and patchouli oil, with the the odd waft of jazz cigarette. The audience was 90% spotty male grebo-lite as I recall. Some of the bands I witnessed were Rainbow (who actually were not that bad), Kiss (hilarious - you'll see why), Budgie (4 times goddamit!), Angelwitch, Saxon, Samson, Girlschool (4 times again. A luverly all girl hard rock band - I once thought I'd gotten off with the bass player, Enid (!) I think her name was, because she let me buy her a drink, only to be knocked off my pedestal when her huge roadie boyfriend appeared and stuck his tongue down her throat) and a host of other forgettable NWOBHM bands.

I mentioned Kiss. This was in 1980 at Wembley Arena. By then I was well into anything new wave and hated all the old metal and hard rock stuff, and it was only because my neighbour Ian couldn't persuade anyone else to go see his favourite band with him, and the promise of free beer, that I went. Part of the act of this largely talent free bunch of Yanks in clown make up was to have the guitarist hoisted aloft while he played an endless two note "solo". Said musical excursion ends, and the Godzilla attired plank spanker is lowered to the ground while the song ends. Only the winch got stuck. The show must go on, so one and a half songs later, the guy is still up there manfully carrying on with his guitar parts and occasionally gesticulating wildly at his roadies to get him down. In an attempt to spare his blushes, the lighting crew deliberately left him in near total darkness, but the audience, most of whom were wetting themselves by now, were only looking at one thing, and it wasn't the rest of the band! Being in near total darkness and still being suspended also had a detrimental effect on plank spanker's contribution to the point where he was mixed out of the sound completely. I nearly brought on a hernia I laughed so much. Spinal Tap couldn't have done better.

A gig I remember for the wrong reasons was The Stranglers in Peterborough in 1978. Jean Jacques Burnel the so-called pin up of the band, and let's face it being a pin up in the Stranglers was not difficult, imprinted himself on my memory and more disgustingly on the face of a girl fan, by kicking her in the head from his position on the stage, presumably because she was screaming at him. What a cunt. Incidentally the support band at this gig was Riff Raff. That name probably does not mean much to you, but this was Billy Bragg's punk outfit before he went solo.

Another support act that I recall at the time thinking that they were rather good was one U2 supporting Slade at The Lyceum, London, in 1980 just before Boy came out.

Festivals, I've had a few, but too few to mention. Well about 10 actually. Back in my hard rockin' days, Reading was the festival of choice. This was an era when if the assembled greasers didn't like a band or were just bored, an empty plastic 1 litre cider bottle would be filled with piss and lobbed either at the stage or the mosh pit. Charming I can tell you. The view from further back was broken by the occasional spiralling bottle flying overhead and landing on the moshers were a big gap would instantly form around the poor sod who'd just been drenched. By 1978 the Reading Festival was slowly accommodating the rise of punk and new wave. On the Friday afternoon we were entertained by Sham 69, fronted by faux cockernee loudmouth Jimmy Pursey, who was keen to impart to us masses that "If you fuckin' ippees don't fuckin' like it, you can all fuck off". This seemed to be a cue for his crowd of 14 year old skinhead fans to go on a rampage through the audience, running into people and shouting. It was quite comical. Pursey's mob launched into their set of two chord shout alongs, and who should we see lurking stage left almost out of sight playing the 10 second lead breaks because 69's geetar player was incapable? None other than Steve Hillage, probably the epitome of "a fuckin' 'ippee"! Oh, the irony.

As far as festival vibes go, you can't beat Glastonbury in the early to mid 80s before it became too big and an excuse for Tarquin and Vanessa to forget their day jobs in The City where they make big bucks exploiting the less fortunate, and pretend to be at one with nature and their fellow humans for 3 days.
I can remember one Glasto' - '84 it was - when we turned up in style on motorbikes early on the Friday evening, sat in a cafe tent all night listening to loud dub reggae, drinking rum punch, eating all kinds of wonderful creole grub and imbibing the odd herbal ciggy or ten with the other waifs and strays. We didn't put the tents up until about 11 the following morning. It took a long time. Who was playing down the hill on the stages was largely irrelevant, although I do recall a rather fine set by Elvis Costello and his Attractions.

Wettest festival ever? No, not Glasto as you might expect but 2000 Trees in deepest Gloucestershire in July 2009. It belted down for the entire day, apart from about 1 hour during a fine set by the underrated modern hard rockers Amplifier, who were the band we had gone to see, so it was all ok in the end.

2000 Trees - a man in a dress for no apparent reason...

2000 Trees - the predominant view from under Phill's purloined umbrella. There were people there, honest! Most of the crowd were sensibly under cover.

Here's some pics of ticket stubs from my gig going past....

The Copemeister - one of many times

Tom Verlaine - Guitar hero

Keep on rockin'....

I was young once you know...

I could be happy...Claire Grogan...mmmm...

A great live band - one of many times seen

Progtastic!

JJ Burnel - Get back in the sewer...............

Hahahahahahaha!

Gong - Acid Motherhood

Gong have been going in one form or another for over 40 years now, some giving them the epithet "The European Grateful Dead" for the legion of loyal fans, community even, that surrounds them, and also for their similar acid drenched beginnings. Like The 'Dead, I have always struggled to get into Gong, and their innate silliness prevents me from listening to the few albums I have by them on anything more than a very occasional basis.

The 2004 version of the band, still fronted by Daevid Allen, and featuring co-founder Gilli Smith on one track are here teamed up with Kawabata Makoto (guitars & bazouki) & Cotton Casino (synths & voices) from the equally bizarre Acid Mothers Temple, a band whose promise more often than not far exceeds their delivery. Prince is or was famous for his lack of quality control, releasing lots of below par stuff, but he's got nothing on these guys who seem to release absolutely everything they put on tape, and at an alarming rate. But that's another story.

The pairing of Gong's daftness with AMT's noiseniks actually works, and what could have been entirely unlistenable is actually not bad at all. The album maybe lacks the thematic quality of Gong's best work (the Hillage/Allen era imo) and veers from gentle space balladry to noise freakouts, to a weird noise-funk hybrid on the marvellous Supercotton where the "space whisper" synth of Ms Smith & Cotton Casino's synth drones are backed by a belting off-kilter funk beat. Brainwash Me has a sub Talking Heads funk groove put through a blender - splendid!
On the slower tracks Makoto actually plays some fluent lead in places, but it's sometimes difficult to tell whether or not it's him or Daevid Allen doing the widdly bits. As Makoto wrote Bazuki Logix I can only assume it's him on uncharacteristic whimsical lead guitar.

All in all a rather unexpectedly good album. A friend of a friend who is a big Gong fan described this as "unlistenable", but in my opinion it's anything but.

3 out of 5 - A truly hideous cover though!







You can get this on mp3 on Amazon at a much more reasonable £6.99 by the way.
#19

Scott Walker - 5 Easy Pieces

If like me you tend to get periods when you're obsessed with a particular group or artist, you could do a lot worse than put Scott Walker on heavy rotate. This highly ironically titled 5 cd themed career retrospective released in 2003 is now hard to get hold of, and is anything but "Easy". It remains a consummate overview of the many splendoured thing that is the journey of Noel Scott Engel. The man has covered everything from crooning ballads to love songs to Northern European minimalism to film music to out and out strangeness, and having the weird distinction of featuring a side of pork as a rhythm instrument on the extremely dense and almost impenetrable 2005 cd The Drift, this man is a minefield of musical complexity unlike any other.

Starting off in the mid sixties as a teenybop pin up with the Walker Brothers, by 1967 he had had enough and went solo. In under two and a half years he had released the now legendary four numbered albums (Peter Gabriel was obviously a fan) which by the final LP of the quartet saw him writing his own strangely oblique strategies still backed by lush string arrangements.
Attempts at reforming the Walker Brothers came and went in the 70s, stranger and oddly normal solo albums appeared up to 1995's dark and uncompromising Tilt, the last album before this compilation.

This winding journey through his output covers all bases from The Walker Brothers up to Tilt and is a compelling beast of a thing. Be prepared to be wooed, and then intellectually challenged, sometimes within the space of the same song!

Each cd follows a theme -
CD1 "In My Room - The complete bedsit dramas including the kitchen sink"
In which Scott ruminates on the nature of life, love, and the universe "from a fire escape in the sky". There are some wonderful songs on this including the marvellous Montague Terrace (In Blue), surely the template for Marc Almond's career. It's hard to pick out the best ones here, as they are all great songs, but a standout is the idiosyncratic vocal in the form of smokily cracked tones which croak all over Time Operator, a blues to the woman intoning the Speaking Clock. Odd but it works.

CD2 "Where's The Girl? - Songs of a Lady, Love & Loss"
If you're not a fan of his early schmaltzy love songs, skip tracks 2 to 7 after the first listen, otherwise by track 8 , the swoonsome "Joanna" (written by UK pair Trent & Hatch, whom most folks in the UK remember solely for writing the theme tune to the unmissed 60s/70s soap Crossroads) you'll be thinking for gawd's sake get over it man! On his early albums the schmaltzy tunes work well, as they don't follow one another. This is perhaps the only cd of the 5 where the mostly chronological ordering does not work so well.
As we go past the early years the songs become less obvious and more complete. The cd ends with two songs written for German cabaret songstress Ute Lemper, a sort of modern day Marlene Dietrich. These songs are very odd but strangely compelling pieces of work.

CD3 "An American In Europe - Home and away: songs from Europe & America"
Although born in America, SW found success in Europe initially and because of his German-Jewish parentage was always Eurocentric in outlook. In the early part of his solo career he indulged in a passion for the songs of French composer Jacques Brel, and indeed on his first solo album he must have delighted his record company with his cover of Amsterdam with its references to prostitutes and the darker side of night life in the Dutch capital. Remember, at the time of his first solo LP in 1967 he was still seen as a teen idol!
The first 9 of 21 songs on this cd are SW's suitably dramatic interpretations Brel's work. My favourite is If You Go Away, with its numerous false endings - or could they be beginnings? Following these we have his mainly self-penned canon taking him across Europe and back to the land of his birth, all the while growing more intense.

CD4 "This Is how You Disappear - The darkest hour is just before dawn: 15 big hits"
Another ironic non-sequitur from the compiler - 15 Big Hits indeedy!
Right - now it gets weird. imagine the works of Jean Paul Satre set to music and you've some idea of how this comes across. The cd starts with a single b-side "The Plague" which is possibly what Tom Jones might have sounded like if he had been an angst ridden intellectual. As the cd progresses through the years the existentialist jungle gets thicker, until by the time we arrive at the final two tracks from 1995's Tilt we have hacked our way through the undergrowth and arrived at a kind of Mordor of the soul. I kid you not! The best part of this cd are the 4 SW penned tracks from The Walker Brothers reunion LP of 1978, Nite Flites, in particular The Electrician, which defies description - just go listen to it.

CD5 "Scott On Screen - Music from and for films"
Mostly culled from the soundtrack to an obscure French art house movie Pola X, but with added extras such as The Walker Brothers recorded Deadlier Than The Male, SW's version of Dylan's I Threw It All Away from Bond movie The World Is Not Enough, and others. Scott's cinematic scope is a natural tie in with movies, and as a themed cd this works very well.


This box set is all you need to know about the thinking man's crooner, but for the more faint of heart, try the single cd "Boy Child - The Best Of 1967-1970" which does exactly what it says on the tin.

The Gates Of Delerium

Over the years the one form of music I have probably listened to more than any other is prog rock. Even during The Punk Wars, when I had a heavy Clash/NME/John Peel fixation, I would occasionally, under cover of darkness, and when no-one was looking (or listening), play the odd Yes or Genesis album, heaven forfend!

I've recently been listening to Procol Harum and it occured to me who were the bands that sowed the seeds of prog without being or becoming prog themselves?

Prog in my opinion is the merging of three or more styles to create something entirely different. I put the case that the first fully formed prog band, emerging out of seemingly nowhere were Van Der Graaf Generator, releasing their strangely strange but oddly normal debut Aerosol Grey Machine in January 1969. For some obscure licensing reason this LP was not released in this country, so the mantle of the first UK prog band to release an album in this country falls to King Crimson, who with their amazing October 1969 debut put an early definition on the genre.

So here's my guesses, in no particular order. You will notice that there are no American bands in this list, as imo, the Yanks never really "did" prog did they? He asks, waiting to be shot down in flames.....Ok, you've got Iron Butterfly, who are the closest I can think of, but they were basically bludgeon riffola morphed into acid rock. I mean "In A Gadda Da Vida" although 20 minutes long is hardly prog is it? Butterfly Bleu (which I love by the way) from their 1970 album Metamorphosis is as close as they got. But that's after my 1969 deadline.

Procol Harum
With their 1968 sophomore effort Shine On Brightly introduced the world to the 20 minute song cycle, "In Held 'Twas In I". With Keith Reid's verbose but interesting lyrics and Gary Brooker's R&B meets classical inspired tune smithing, along with Robin Trowers' acidic guitar breaks here is the first true proto-prog epic. Believed to have insprired the writing of Tommy and other rock operas.

The Moody Blues
Days Of Future Passed (1967) & In Search Of The Lost Chord (1968) both qualify as proto-prog efforts, the former being the first group/orchestra collaboration. It's probably only the pop leanings of Hayward & Lodge that stopped this band turning into a veritable prog monster. This band also discovered the early prog instrument of choice, the mellotron, hiding in a bush in Aston, Birmingham. They took it home, fed it, and the rest is history!

The Pretty Things
1968's S.F. Sorrow is credited as being the first concept album, and were it not for record company cock ups would have been released a year earlier, and given the right promotion could have given the ubiquitous Sgt Pepper a run for its money. If you've not heard this you should search it out. An underrated masterpiece imo.

The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
Their one self titled LP (1968) contained the keyboards of Vincent Crane (later of Atomic Rooster, and, briefly, Dexy's Midnight Runners would you believe!), the man who wrote Fire. The LP is full of weird effects and strange time changes. Great stuff. The booming baritone of Mr Brown went on to grace Kingdom Come who released three prog classics in the early 70s. Well worth checking out.

The Nice
Ars Longa Vita Brevis (1968) moves on from their psych beginnings and gives us a template for prog based on corrupted classical music. Responsible for unleashing the "waste of talent and electricity" (John Peel) that was ELP on the world. Never a truer word said.

Mentioned in dispatches:
The Zombies - Odyssey & Oracle (1968). Pop-psych masterpiece from the band that morphed into mid table proggers Argent.
Ian Carr's Nucleus - although not releasing an album until 1970, thus falling short of my 1969 cut off, deserve a mention for having most of the UK jazz-prog alumni passing through its ranks at one time or another.
The Edgar Broughton Band - Wasa Wasa (1969). more psych blues than prog, gave birth to free form wig outs later popular at the more jamming based end of the prog spectrum (Man, Hawkwind, Gong etc)

No doubt there are omissions here, feel free to add any you can think of....

PS - But worrabout Pink Floyd you may ask? Well, I reckon they invented space rock, a different kettle of fish from prog rock. Look no further than Interstellar Overdrive & Saucerful Of Secrets. I mean, you wouldn't call Hawkwind prog would you? Ok, I'll admit that some of the second disc of Ummagumma and the track Atom Heart Mother  are probably prog, but Floyd then turned into what we now call classic rock. Dark Side Of The Moon altho' obviously a brilliant album has very little that's prog about it. The only track in a time signature that may be classed as unusual is Money, the instrumentation is by and large conventional. I'm not knocking it, I love the album, just don't think it fits in with my definition of prog. I'm probably in a minority of one, but who cares!

My Brother The Wind - Twilight In The Crystal Cabinet

This 6 track album was recorded on analogue tape over the course of 2 hours of improvised jamming by Nicklas Barker, the guitarist from the mighty Anekdoten, along with Mathias Danielson (Makajodama) - Guitar, and Ronny Eriksson - Bass, Tomas Eriksson - Drums.

Some of it reminds me of Man at their most spaced out, 70s Hawkwind, Amon Duul 2, T2 and Bevis Frond also come to mind as does King Crimson (on the aptly titled Precious Sanity). The title track is a gossamer thin wafer of music - a thing of almost ethereal beauty. Shame it's the shortest track on the album.

The final track Death And Beyond takes off into the outer limits with some mighty fine soloing. A really nice piece of wigged out space rock for the freaks.

2010 is turning out to be a good year for improvised space rock what with this and the 30 minute plus epic by Frogg Cafe "At The Table Of The Leptons" on the download album On The Lillypadd. Buy both, turn out the lights and trip off into the far reaches of the universe!

3.5 out of 5



Unfortunately unavailable on Amazon.com
#17

Frogg Cafe - Bateless Edge

From the state of New York come the marvellously diverse Frogg Cafe. Formerly a Zappa cover band, they released their eponymous debut in 2002. Bateless Edge released last month is their 4th studio album proper, and easily their most ambitious effort to date. Here's the line up for this album:

- Bill Ayasse / violin, viola, mandolin, hand percussion, vocals
- Frank Camiola / electric guitar, banjo, string bass
- James Guarnieri / drums, glockenspiel, orchestral percussion
- John Lieto / trombone and bass trombone
- Nick Lieto / lead vocals, piano, keyboards, trumpet, flugelhorn
- Andrew Sussman / electric bass, cello, acoustic guitar

Guest musicians

- Sharon Ayasse / flute (3, 4, 5, 6, 8)
- Dennis Lippe / electric guitar (1, 7)
- Dee Harris / indian slide guitar, tambora (1)
- Nitim Mohan / tabla (1)
- Vessela Stoyanova / marimba (1, 4, 5, 6)
- Michael Kollmer / marimba, xylophone (3, 8)
- Jon Preddice / cello (3, 8)
- Steven Sussman / clarinet, bass clarinet (4, 5, 6, 8)
- Steve Kastikas / keyboards (4)
- Mike Kauffman / alto and tenor saxophones (8)

You may expect from that that a complex sound will evolve, and you would not be disappointed! 
 
The album consists of eight tracks spanning 77 minutes, so there are no off the cuff pop tunes here matey! The highly personal lyrical themes touch on child adoption and the 9/11 tragedy, the latter is also apparent from the artwork. This is done sensitively where it could so easily have been seen as mawkish to those of us detached by thousands of miles, not to mention our countrymen regularly returning home in boxes from Afghanistan as a consequence - anyhow, that's not a debate for these pages.
 
The first track Terra Sancta deals directly with 9/11 and is lyrically very moving. Musically it's a great piece of orchestral ensemble playing, which at times in the main theme if comparisons have to be made reminds me of Kashmir, in that it carries a similar sense of foreboding. There's a great guitar break about 8 minutes in backed by scat piano, the main theme returning at the end but in a more optimistic vein. A great arrangement and an awesome start to the album.

Following this is an instrumental Move Over I'm Driving, which after the intense first track calms things down a little. there appear to be no added musicians on this track, but the group themselves give another fine show of ensemble playing. Some nice time signature shifts and arpeggio violin work flows smoothly into subtle jazz guitar noodling and trumpet blowin'and is a fine piece of work. There sure are some highly competent musos in this band....

Next up is Pasta Fazeuhl. Fans will know that a lot of the band's more improvised work ends up being named after types of pasta, and this one invents a new Teutonic strain. Get your local Italian restaurant to patent it lads! This one apparently started life way back in 2003 after seeing Magma play live and is described as "not in the style of Magma....(but) in the spirit (of).." The band stamp their own jazz-classical style on this "tribute", if that's the right word. Less angular than Magma, who I have always struggled with to be honest, this excursion into weirdness has a touch of Sun Ra in there somewhere too, which is no bad thing. Around 5 minutes in the cacophony halts abruptly, and a cyclical bass riff is slowly built on by violin, guitar, drums and gradually builds into a very strange sometimes almost Crimsoid section, in who knows what time signature! Weird but good.
On first hearing I found this one hard work, but repeated listens have made me appreciate just what great players FC are.

Now we have the centre piece of the album - Under Wuhu Sun - a 20 minute epic split into 3 parts. Another highly personal lyric from Andrew Sussman based on "Wuhu Diary: On Taking My Daughter Back To Her Home Town In China" by Emily Prager, and on his own family's experiences in their trials and tribulations adopting their daughter from China.
Starting with a slow theme, the sad emotive song of the first part is followed by a nice guitar break that lifts the mood while still remaining introspective. The instrumental second part opens with a chugging riff, followed by a slower quieter but still intricate piece of ensemble playing and forms a bridge to the concluding third part. The opening of the final section is the most Zappaesque instrumentally, but still retains the by now recognisable Frogg Cafe style. A nice clarinet followed by trombone (I think) solo comes in at around the 3 minute mark leading to a nice bubblingly fluid guitar noodle - mmmmm, nice!
I've only had the opportunity to listen to this track a few times but it's already in danger of becoming my favourite piece by the band.

Following this is From The Fence, the only track with lyrics not by Andrew Sussman. This time writing duties are taken by Nick Leito, and they are more ambiguous than his band mate's. The song could be interpreted in a number of ways, suffice to say the protagonist seems to be unable to make up his mind which way to turn. Whether personally, politically, emotionally I can't say, I'll leave that up to you. This is also the straightest "song" on the album, not that it suffers in any way for it. Quite uplifting, it must be in a major key (don't hold me to that)!

The final track Belgian Boogie Board was originally written for 2 clarinets and 2 electric basses and has now had all manner of extraneous instrumentation added and fair belts along with joyous mischief for its 10 minutes.

All in all this is a highly ambitious work and is deserving of far more attention than it will inevitably receive. How on earth the band find time to write the songs and complex orchestral arrangements, and oversee the recording in tandem with their day jobs and the usual stuff of daily life, families etc, is beyond me. If their was any justice they should be able to at least make a living from this astounding music.



Amazingly unavailable on Amazon.com!!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/group.php?gid=121351975299&ref=ts
 
A very rare 5 out of 5 ********************************
#16