Giorgio Brugnone-electric bass
Sergio Cacherano Staropoli-drums, percussion, voice
Michel Brieda-synthesizer, drum machine, autoharp, tapes

“Complex mostly instrumental compositions from this Italian band, led primarily by drummer Staropoli. Interesting rhythmic ideas in this virtual "soundtrack" that includes forays into electronics and many unusual compositional areas most associated with modern progressive or RIO genres - think Henry Cow crossed with Fat or Univers Zero and you might..

"Careful compositions converse with focused improvisations under the precise direction of Steve MacLean who, on this CD, after various excursions that took him through experimental works for piano, interactive insect/guitar compositions and pure electronics, returns to a performing band and a journey through complex polyrhythmic compositions imaginatively intercut with careful, atmospheric inventions, for guitar, bass, keyboard, percussion and various objects. There is a quiet rigour, almost a formality...

Totally wonderful round up of all the 7” and EP titles that Geoff Leigh (ex-Henry Cow) released in the late 70s and early 80s. Quite wonderful arty-art-damaged post punk whatever whoo-haa! Recommended.

“Zig-zagged music, the specialty of MCCB. Across a wide spectrum of sound comes minimal electronics, jilted avantpop, artpunx, and progressive music. Some folk in there as well, somehow. This is a very fine collection of Leigh's various musings, and with it his sharp humor and immense talent shines...

"This is the 13th release from Australian maverick trio The Necks, now approaching their 20th Anniversary, and still occupying a genre-group of one. Their slow, gripping, development of a single idea over the length of a whole CD, while somehow obvious, has proved un-copyable, mostly because it so much depends on the unique musical personalities and extreme virtuosity of these three, profoundly different, musicians.
Having established their theme, The Necks, with Chemist, break the habit of a...

“Dark and majestic, News from Babel remains ahead of their time.”-Michael Draine

“News from Babel was the song project inaugurated by Chris Cutler with fellow ex Henry Cow composer Lindsay Cooper. The pieces for this first LP were written for a band that also included Zeena Parkins (harp - her first recording with the instrument) and the incomparable Dagmar Krause (another ex-band member) singing.
Using the studio as an instrument and experimenting with unusual instrumentation and techniques.

“The second release from this abstract trio who mingle hard electronics with acoustic and processed percussion. A more focused, subtle aesthetic here, I think, than on their last also excellent - CD. These are finely tuned and seamlessly integrated sounds that have been crafted and, importantly, performed; this is essentially played music that had been painstakingly reworked, and bears still the deep qualities of interactivity and immediacy that created it.”-Chris Cutler

"Improvisation is the...

“Lesego Rampolokeng (born 7 July 1965) is a South African writer, playwright and performance poet. He came to prominence in the 1980s, a very turbulent time in South Africa. His poetry often criticises the establishment. His first instalment of poetry was Horns for Hondo (1991) and this was followed by End Beginnings (1993).
Lesego collaborates with musicians. He has performed in many countries and with musicians such as Julian Bahula, Soulemane Toure, Louis Mhlanga and Gunther 'Baby' Sommer.”

Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer-keyboards & sampler
Bob Drake-bass, occasional guitar & organ
Chris Cutler-drums & electrified kit
Mike Johnson-guitars

Muchly awaited and anticipated 'instrumental complex rock deluxe' album. Mike Johnson is a great guitarist, and one of the aspects of his greatness is the fact that he doesn't show off, but only uses his talents as needed to put whatever he plays on in the best light. Well, the best light here includes some hellacious playing from him and fro

“Slapp Happy meanwhile was planning its second record for Virgin. One night the trio showed up at the quartet's door and proposed that the two groups make the second Slapphappy LP together...Henry Cow jumped at the chance and Desperate Straights was the result. It's still a gem to my ears, and now at last it's possible to release it, properly re-mastered (by Bob Drake), its sound closer to the original tapes even than our earlier Nimbus vinyl pressing. Great songs, great arrangements, great performances...

Recorded live in 1984 at one of Sun Ra's many US concerts, this captures the Arkhestra in full big band mode, blowing up a storm that could probably be heard on Venus. This is a good, solid, representative mid 80's show with very good sonics (by Ra standards) by the Arkestra.

“This is a stunning late period Ra album. Beautiful space-chants and atonal keyboard freakouts plus a mix of Ellingtonian Ra-jazz as only the Arkestra could do it.
Maybe not the album to start with if you are unfamiliar..

"Between “Blue & Yellow” and “Deceit” came the EP, “Health & Efficiency”. It bridges a gap between the mostly improvisational former, and the highly composed latter, showing great diversity in the band’s sound in general, as well as nicely documenting their two extreme directions.
The title track is This Heat’s single most high-energy piece ever, and is a tour de force of singing, ensemble playing and sound texture; It is propelled along by Charles Bullen’s signature guitar strumming & ratcheting...

This Heat's amazingly good first album, first released in 1979, and consisting of several years worth of creative and hard work, distilled down into 40-some minutes of gripping music. At a time when, except for punk, there wasn't much happening in creative music, This Heat showed that there was another path. Remastered by the group in 2005.

"This Heat, the band, emerged in early 1976 on the leading edge of what became the new wave, but they were always apart, more scary and more subtle....

"Keystone works from the various streams of musique concrete, electronic music, soundscape, electroacoustics and plunderphonics - including two masterworks from Eastern Europe, a territory traditionally overlooked in collections of this medium.
This is the classic collection of Contemporary, Concrete, Tapeworked and Processed works - and an indispensable survey of a crucial field:
It comprises: John Oswald's 'Parade', a complex work drawn and extended from Satie's celebrated ballet composition...

Bob Drake: drums, bass, backing vocals, tapes, viola
Susanne Lewis: vocals, guitar, viola, accordion, synths

Venus Handcuffs is an early, pre-Hail project by Bob Drake and Susanne Lewis, both of whom were working in Thinking Plague at the time they were also simultaneously doing this duo work.

"Referred to as "a cross between Throbbing Gristle and Nick Cave" during the band's lifetime, Venus Handcuffs got their start in the ranks of Colorado's most far-reaching band, Thinking...

"After a break of six years, Chris Cutler, Bob Drake and Lukas Simonis, now with added ingredient Pierre Omer, present the second volume of recordings by the elusive VRIL - a band who revive and update both the great institution of the guitar instrumental and the now sadly neglected practice of collective arrangement, intense rehearsal and live studio performance. Appropriate to the half century that has passed since the birth of the form, these hits dodge about, get bored easily and blend both...

Woof was Tim Hodgkinson's label. This release is a pretty big deal, if only for the inclusion of the really, really great "I Do, I Do...I Don’t, I Don’t" EP by Tim and Bill Gilonis, which has been unavailable for over 20 years, was a miserable grotty pressing to begin with, and was Tim's very first post-Cow recordings and the roots of The Work. Not to mention the inclusion of Houdini, one of The Work's greatest...uh...works!

"This CD comprises all four 7” releases by the British underground....

Here's something I *never* thought I would see; an album of 'new' (new as in unheard) material by The Work! If you don’t know The Work, they were formed by Tim Hodgkinson after Henry Cow and they are one of the greatest ‘difficult rock music’ bands of the 80s and one of the least heralded.

"The 4th World is the band's long-lost, never before issued, very last album, from 1994. Succeeding See by some two years, it shares that album's aesthetics and approach -- an economy of means, and superior...

"Classic recording by the ever deeper Russian instrument builders and masters of live electroacoustic/song/sound sculptures. Dangerous, Bitter, Desperate and Down to the Bone, but carrying a huge emotional charge and a rare beauty. This is lived music, both mature and profound."-Chris Cutler