"Hardy Fox used to be composer for The Residents for over four decades. He later released solo albums under the name Charles Bobuck before finally switching to his real name in 2017.
After Heart, Nachtzug is his second solo album. In the beginning, this release was intended to become a TOOK release - simply releasing Fox's sketches for The Residents' Ghost Of Hope album. But this idea soon turned out to be not challenging enough, so Hardy started using his original sketches as the basis of an...

Grumpy editor's note: at this point, I don't think either name listed here is a real name....

"Hardy Fox grew up in Texas. After college he moved to San Francisco reveling in the free love days of 1967-68. He co-founded the much loved cult band, the Residents, where he was primary composer.
Hardy retired from The Residents in 2015 but continued to compose for the group through 2017. In addition to his work with that band, he has recorded as a solo artist under various names including Charles..

So, Harmonia put out this sexy, vinyl-only box set of all their work and included the box included a vinyl release of never-before heard studio material.
But until now, you had to either get it in the vinyl box or you could buy it as a cassette (as CASSETTE? I know it was recorded in 1975, but did they have sell it like it was 1975?).
FINALLY you can buy it on vinyl and it’s really great!
This album consists of two unearthed live recordings, capturing the Deluxe-era incarnation of the group.

“Crossfade Estate was a special, distinct project. It was made in November 2005. Recorded in 10 hours. Edited, mixed and collaged over 18 months. It was a development of Charles Hayward's long term relationship with The Albany in Deptford, London. They asked him to push their recently installed digital recording suite and see what he could make.
The approach was a step further from the series Accidents+Emergencies which Hayward had curated in the late 1990's. It was a pulling together of different...

Charles Hayward is, of course, best known for his drumming and vocalizing feats with This Heat, Camberwell Now and Quiet Sun, but in addition to doing some improvising work, he has released a number of solo albums contsructed out of his excellent drumming, distinctive voice and single drones made from keyboards, melodica, etc. I saw him perform at RIO in 2009 and it was a real treat to finally see the great man behind the kit and in full voice. This is his first in quite some time and is a good one...

The last of the Henry Cow albums on Virgin, this includes their amazing final BBC session; 25' of Henry Cow perfection, a small taste of the famous shows that they performed with Robert Wyatt and a lot of purely free improvisation or prepared free improvisation, which is what they were doing live at this time.
This has been out of print for a bit now and is always in demand, and it has been remastered by Bob Drake and sounds significantly better to my ears!

"Originally released in 197

The last of the Henry Cow albums originally on Virgin, this includes their amazing final BBC session (one of the best 25' snapshots of the band ever, imo), a small taste of the famous shows that they performed with Robert Wyatt and a lot of free improvisation, which is a lot of what they were doing live at this time.

"From its earlier records, the band was known for its rather complex compositional work. This double-LP for the first time gave serious space to the improvisations that accounted for..

This was Cow's final studio album for Virgin, & is considered by many folks to be their greatest achievement, with Dagmar fully integrated into the band. With the original (greatly superior) mixes which have been unavailable for years & improved sound.

This is high quality live Swedish radio recordings from Goteborg (1975 - with John Greaves) and Stockholm (1977 - with Georgie Born). The sound is great here; Bob Drake worked from the original 8 track and stereo 2 track masters and you can finally hear Tim's follow-up masterpiece to "Living in the Heart of the Beast", entitled "Erk Gah". There's also some nice improvisations and other tunes and Fred's never otherwise released "The March", which is a really great one as well. Highly recommended...

Their 2nd album featured the addition of Lindsay Cooper's bassoon/oboe, giving them sort of a proto-Univers Zero sound (Cow were first) & is reissued with superior sonics. One side of composed music and one side of (mostly) improvised music with studio...

Nearly 8 years after the big box set by Henry Cow was unleashed on the world, they’ve made the sets available individually!

”This opens with a series of well-recorded tracks from an unknown source, largely culled from Unrest but demonstrating Cow's penchant for mixing things up in performance so that, while all the signposts of Frith's "Ruins" are there, the complexion is changed by inserting "Half Asleep" smack dab in the middle. Frith doesn't reproduce the razor's edge tone of his solo on the...

Nearly 8 years after the big box set by Henry Cow was unleashed on the world, they’ve made the sets available individually!

“Lindsay Cooper had joined Henry Cow for their Unrest album, replacing founding member/woodwind multi-instrumentalist Geoff Leigh. Trondheim is a recording of the band's May 1976 concert in Trondheim Norway, when Henry Cow was a quartet, immediately after Greaves departure from the band, and without singer Dagmar Krauss, who was too ill to perform at the time...

This is high quality live Swedish radio recordings from Goteborg (1975 - with John Greaves) and Stockholm (1977 - with Georgie Born). The sound is great here; Bob Drake worked from the original 8 track and stereo 2 track masters and you can finally hear Tim's follow-up masterpiece to "Living in the Heart of the Beast", entitled "Erk Gah". There's also some nice improvisations and other tunes and Fred's never otherwise released "The March", which is a really great one as well. Highly recommended...

Nearly 8 years after the big box set by Henry Cow was unleashed on the world, they’ve made the sets available individually!
This is a high-quality radio broadcast from early 1978, just a few months before the end.

“Bremen is another live performance beginning with a lengthy improvisation that, in ambience, references contemporary classical composers Krzysztof Penderecki and, at times, Gyorgy Ligeti. Henry Cow was often considered, by those trying desperately to find a label with which to...

The final Henry Cow album, & along with their first, this is my favorite of their many great works. This stuff is the ultimate in humanly impossible to play works, but there they are playing it! One side of Tim Hodgkinson's composerly insanity (no wonder he gave up composed music for the improvised life! How does one top this?) and one side of Lindsay Cooper's fine works. Fred Frith provides guitar and bass & Chris Cutler turns in one of his greatest drumming performances. You know that the voting is...

This box collects recordings from 1950-2016 by the master of Musique Concrete!

“This is a wonderfully produced box set of some of the most incomprehensible music ever created. That's not a criticism, it was meant to challenge our notions of the form. And in that he succeeds.
I have to say that I think you need to have listened to both 20th century "classical" music and 21st century progressive pop to really appreciate how Henry's manipulation of sound scape has become the way we now think...

This is five pieces by Tim in strictly 'modern composer' mode, with all the pieces composed between 2000-2010.

"I am a composer and also an improviser specialising in clarinets and lap steel guitar. After studying anthropology I taught myself...

In 1976, keyboardist Hoenig (ex Agitation Free, Tangerine Dream) and guitarist/keyboardist Göttsching (ex Ash Ra Tempel) were slated to tour France. They recorded their final rehearsal together before leaving, which was probably a good thing as the tour was cancelled!
20 years later, this wonderful 48' session was released for the first time. Classic Berlin-style floaty electronics & guitar and one of the great ones from Manuel, imo.
This has been unavailable for at least 15 years! Hugely...

"With Floury Hand (Sketches) is exhilarating listening (and viewing), and in a world now without Lars, poignant and bittersweet." – Dave Lynch/All Music Guide...

The second of two albums made by Kramer (who was still riding high with his Shimmy-Disc label as well as with his release by Bongwater), Hugh Hopper and Damon Krukowski (of Galaxie 500 and Damon and Naomi) on drums. 1997-style modern, whacked-out psychedelia. It's all instrumental, as long as you don't count all the found sounds/tape cut-ups as vocals, and all of Hugh's fans will immediately be able to hear that it is him.

“Recorded as a guitar-less trio (Hugh Hopper on bass, Kramer on piano...

“‘Jazzloops’ and its sequel ‘The Stolen Hour’ features Hopper with special guest appearances by his fellow Soft Machine members and friends; Robert Wyatt, Elton Dean, revered jazz drummer John Marshall, Gong alumni Didier Malherbe, and French guitarist Patrice Meyer.
Both discs have been remastered and the booklet features the original comic for ‘The Stolen Hour’.
Peter Pardo of Sea of Tranquillity’s reviews of the original releases concluded with this comment:
“Hearing Hugh Hopper, Elton...

This puppy was Hugh's third solo album, originally released around 1978, and a really hard one to find. I remember being thrilled when I scored a copy in London in 1979. One side is solo multi-tracked basses, recorded at home, while the other was live with band (Elton Dean-saxes, Mike Travis-drums, Jean-Pierre Carolfi-keyboards, and Jean-Pierre Weiller-bass; so two basses!) in Bordeaux, France, 3/20/74.
This is very much a 'home-made' album; the home recordings are very cool, but they include a...

Subtitled "Songs by Hugh Hopper", that's just what it is, as it collects tunes from the Voiceprint catalog of his songs and even includes a otherwise unavailable version of "Was a Friend" with Robert Wyatt singing! Well worth owning!

"This record reflects the work Hugh has achieved with various creative singers and lyricists, from 1983 through to 1999.
Featured musicians include Lisa S Klossner, Richard Sinclair, Rick Biddulph and Robert Wyatt."

"This is the final of a ten part series curated by the late Mike King, which cherrypicks some of the best and most intriguing items from Hugh Hopper's archive. Until he died a few years ago, Hugh Hopper, probably best known for his work with Soft Machine, was one of Britain's most versatile and innovative bass players, and this multi album set confirms what a sad loss to both jazz and rock his passing was. Vale Hugh. Vale Mike."

1. Was A Friend - Hugh Hopper / Robert Wyatt - 4/95...

"...through our mutual interests we began a friendship which led to my idea to create a recording of these two amazing musicians, Slava Genelin (piano) & Aharon Kaminski (drums & percussion)....the session lasted 3 hours and was fantastic....right...