Henry Cow C/D and S/D

can you still subscribe for this box or did I miss out?

here's the box I was talking about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cow_Box

Bonus 3" CD-single: "Unreleased Orckestra Extract"
Contains previously unreleased material taken from live performances in Europe by The Orckestra in April 1978. Given to advance subscribers of the box set.

"Untitled" (Frith) – 3:40
"Would You Prefer Us to Lie?" (Cutler, Greaves) – 8:03

I haven't checked but maybe that 3" CD is obsolete now?

Alan, this is the RER direct link to the recent live box set

http://www.rermegacorp.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=RERHCBOX1&Category_Code=COW&Store_Code=RM

Karlheinz Stockhausen, Henry Cow and Magma respectively

this seems utterly plausible

I'm bringing the DVD to your party tomorrow night and we're going to watch it while everyone else at the party is having fun

ha ha, the moment on 'Hamburg 3' where the band is just playing increasingly spaced out diffuse noise ala 'Deluge' and Dagmar just quietly comes in whispering the melody to Slapp Happy's 'A Little Something'

still only 4 discs in. it's a slow build, the first disc is more interesting for being early than compelling, but the 11th subscriber-only disc is 60 minutes and it's all pretty great & freeform.

that note in the liners about how these have been edited... yes these have really been edited. usually transparently / plausibly, but the aesthetic here is that the original tapes are just raw material, these were all trimmed down for repeat listening

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_40th_Anniversary_Henry_Cow_Box_Set

just about every disc is fantastic, but yeah, 4/5 Trondheim is really something

Chris Cutler answering questions on AAJ:

http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/showthread.php?t=37642

UK ilxors, Amazon currently have The Studio box set (5 CDs) for £14.47! Looking forward to it as the original CD versions I have sound a bit gash.

that is a criminal bargain

both volumes of 'the road' box set is beyond belief really. the first two discs I don't return to all that often, yeah, but the real surprise is the amount of completely composed material throughout, they had enough for 3-4 additional studio albums. the other thing is just how much absurdly ON IT they were as a live band, the live versions of familiar pieces are just completely on fire, they just tear it all to shreds

so anyone worried that this 10 disc box set is mostly like the ambient / completely abstract side of what they do, nope, it is split 50/50 between abstract freeform & compositions that are so good it is just confusing that it took until the 30th anniversary for them to come out

proof my paragraph for me ok? ok

UK ilxors, Amazon currently have The Studio box set (5 CDs) for £14.47!

Thanks for the heads up, duly ordered. Not restricted to UK either as they are shipping it to Europe for me for only £2 p&p!

revive!!

did anyone read the Chris Cutler letter in the new issue of the Wire? it's pretty epic: http://thewire.co.uk/articles/6715/

For what's worth, I think he's obviously right.

Kinda teasing fans there with the prospect of a reconstituted Cow

He's not 'obviously right' at all. Some of the things he says are right, but certainly not all, and the conclusions he draws from some things do not necessarily follow.

This piece from Records on Ribs is a great contribution to the debate as far as I'm concerned: To Free or Not to Free. (Full disclosure: I do know them, but that doesn't mean I agree with everything they say here - I just think it's a very well considered addition to the subject.)

"As Cutler notes, plumbers do not work for free. But capitalism is not the end of history and perhaps one day plumbers will work for free"

Thanks for the tip; while I can appreciate the effort put in the label, phrases like this are a bit puzzling, at least for me.

Not sure if this is being patronising, but the 'end of history' thing is a reference to Fukuyama's book, in which he claims our state of Western capitalist democracy is indeed the end point of cultural evolution.

No problem - for what's worth, I find Fukuyama and his Hegelian mannerisms pretty simplistic too.
Still the idea of a society based on "gift economies, common ownership and mutual aid" seems to me wishful thinking, at the same time beautiful and slightly terrifying.

Cutler's response was actually written a few years ago in response to filesharing and repurposed as a response to Kenny's column but it's still a live topic

"As Cutler notes, plumbers do not work for free. But capitalism is not the end of history and perhaps one day plumbers will work for free"

this struck me as a slightly patronizing tone to take towards the individual who wrote the lyrics for "In Praise Of Learning" & "The World As It Is Today" but the Internet means that the conversation usually gotten started before a round of formal introductions. I agree that RoR's (ha ha) idealism is kind of charming but Cutler's been living in the real world for a few decades

as the owner who started what I basically consider to be the most important independent art music label of the 80's and early 90's, Cutler gets to hardline his points -- I learned the canon of most of what I consider to be important through Recommended Records' catalog during that time, and there was no one -- no one else keeping this music in print at that time.

is there really not a RIO thread?

Posting here then: http://www.indiegogo.com/RomanticWarriors?c=home

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVxon0Dd2Rg

Anyone interested in Henry Cow, Univers Zero, Samla, Magma...basically any experimental prog, needs to watch this and contribute to this documentary. They have all the major players, and the story needs to be told, and out there for all to see.

Listening to Unrest now for the first time. I think I understand how this is In Opposition; quite clearly, in fact. The very hills, the hedges, the birds, they are all rising to face the oppressor. Ancient, paganistic squalls of defiance; beauty and savage horror.

feels like a plausible alternative soundtrack to Watership Down

RIP Lindsay Cooper, she had been unwell with MS for some years and apparently died today.

time to listen to Angel On The Bridge then

Oh nooooo that sucks! I love her playing on Art Bears and that David Thomas record so much!

oh shit, that's sad news

RIP. First time I encountered her playing would've been on Children of God by Swans, still one of my all-time fave albs.

Never made the connection back in '87 when Children of God came out. It was only when I was comparing that record with the first Comus album on ilx that Marcello pointed out to me that *she played with both bands*!

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=95270

RIP Lindsay

Shit. RIP.

Had an email about this when I got up, not the best way to start off the day.

Amazing musician, by all accounts a great human being. RIP.

Some live Cow in homage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfpq11-sRVQ

http://alanb.org/ImperfectFifths/fred-friths-gravity-2013-09-20-roulette-nyc-1st-installment-terrain-for-lindsay-cooper/
http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2013/09/lindsay-cooper-1951-2013.html

http://www.nouse.co.uk/wp-content/article_images/body/2010/11/comus.jpg

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/unrest/a_discography_of_lindsay_cooper/
...had no idea she was on so much.

thanks for those links! sounds like a good show and a great way to mark her passing. wasn't previously aware of lindsay's friendship with sally potter

One-off Cow reunion in memory of Lindsay Cooper just announced:

http://www.serious.org.uk/events/info/henry-cow-music-for-films-news-from-babel-and-oh-moscow-play-the-music-of-l

been really broke recently so i haven't been able to get a ticket for the barbican thing yet, but i am seeing the artaud beats at a little local festival tomorrow and i'm pretty excited about that. just watched a few videos and fuck, yumi is a monster

Funny, I thought this reunion would have sparked more ILM interest. Anyway, there are now two further concerts, Huddersfield on 22 Nov and Forlì, Italy on 23 Nov.

Cutler talks about Lindsay Cooper and the reunion:

http://www.cloudsandclocks.net/interviews/CC_LC_interview.html

I am very interested, and very frustrated to have no chance in hell of seeing these. I'm psyched to read that interview-- there's not that much talk about Lindsay Cooper online.

Just finished listening to to Western Culture and so also finished the studio box set. Desperate Straights was my favourite by far but it seemed to be far more of a Slapp Happy album than a Henry Cow one.
I enjoyed the rest but never really loved them, might have to return to them in years ahead. I did particularly like "Beautiful As The Moon", "Half The Sky" and "Nine Funerals Of The Citizen King". Love Dagmar Krause's voice.

Definitely want to get the Art Bears album.

I once saw Cutler saying that Henry Cow was way more of a live band. Does that mean the live albums are better? I don't think I could go for the two live box sets. Too much.

"concerts" is pretty essential

Thanks, that was quick.

Arts Bears albumS I should have said above in the middle paragraph.

There's some live HC (maybe SH/HC because Dagmar sings) youtubes that are very good. Search for the ones recorded at a place called Veysey (or Vesey, I think) in Switzerland (or is it France?). It's probably a good hour in total, and includes the "Beautiful as the Moon, Terrible as an Army With Banners" piece from Concerts.

Art bears in perpetual deadlock with Crimson for my favorite prog band of all time

Vevey, Switzerland. (couldn't do this at work)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfpq11-sRVQ

And I see it was linked above last year (couldn't see that at work either).

The dvd of Vevey was in the Live box set. I haven't heard if any of that box was available separately since, apart from the first disc if you payed on the instalment plan. So even that option may be gone now.
Would think they might make more money by having discs available separately especially the dvd which is pretty Recommended, as are the rest of These

Yeah, I'd buy the DVD for sure. Maybe I'll find a box used somewhere.