Frith, Fred - Gravity
SKU
FREDFRO01
Gravity is one of Fred's most enduring & endearing works. It was his first post-Henry Cow solo album, and he recorded it with the backing of The Muffins on one side of the original album and Samla Mammas Manna on the other + Marc Hollander.
It's the closest thing to a progressive rock disc that Fred has ever released and it's a tuneful yet still avant progressive rock work. This is a classic and is highly recommended!
“1980's GRAVITY represented guitarist Fred Frith's first major break from the extremes of non-jazz improvisation and the intensely composed sound he pioneered with the avant-rock band Henry Cow.
The liner notes articulate Frith's intention to explore dance music from around the globe, to celebrate "the victory over gravity, over all that weighs down or oppressive."
The delightfully eccentric time signatures drawn from Mediterranean, Balkan, and Scandinavia folk music prove remarkably consistent with Frith's own innovative style. Sweden's Zamla Mammas Manna support Frith on the first half of the disc, imparting these tracks with crack musicianship and Zamla's deliriously cheerful air.
Maryland's Muffins lend a more of hard-hitting sound on the second half, climaxing in the crunching cover of Martha and the Vandellas "Dancing in the Street."
Frith's spirited (if technically limited) violin is an appropriate vehicle for the skewed folk melodies that run through the disc, most successfully in a duet with Lars Hollmer's buoyant accordion on "Hands of the Juggler." GRAVITY remains Frith's most accessible album, though the "Twilight Zone Theme"-on-DMT "What a Dilemma" presages Frith's tortured riffing for Massacre.
Swiss producer Etienne Conod (Univers Zero, Art Zoyd, Art Bears) graced the recording with his customary crystalline sound. GRAVITY remains the most concentrated dose of Frith's musical charisma, energy, and creativity.“-Michael W. Draine