Canterbury - Henry Cow on cd?

Next on my Canterbury shopping list is Henry Cow. The first four figures on this
Top 50 List of Canterbury Albums: http://members.chello.nl/a.rotshuizen/top100b.html

I need advice on the best releases:

Leg End
Unrest
In Praise of Learning
Concerts
Western Culture

Thanks!

 

Leg And is the best, IMO. Followed by In Praise Of Learning, Unrest and Concerts. All are great. I don't care much for Western Culture.

Leg End is the place to start given that it's their first album. The original CD that was issued was a remix, and the "original mix" CD issued a few years ago sounds no-noised to me. Their stuff is being issued in Japan soon. No idea if it will be remastered or not. Concerts doesn't need to be remastered, IMO. Though only side 1 of 4 sounds decent, that's the way the album is.

Unrest is probably best on the original ESD release.

In Praise Of Learning has the same problem as Leg End. The original CD was a remix, and the "original mix" sounds no-noised to me.

 

Short story: there are no bad Cow albums. You need them all.

Long story:

The master tapes for 'Legend' went missing and/or were erased a long, long time ago. The "original mix" CD is taken from a very clean vinyl copy. The master tapes for the 'Greasy Truckers' material (included as bonus tracks on the 'Concerts' CD) also went missing. Those songs are also taken from (a much, much noisier) vinyl copy.

The first ESD CD release of 'Unrest' was mastered poorly at a ridiculously low volume. The remaster is a big improvement, IMO.

Note that the original ESD CDs of 'Legend', 'Unrest' and 'Praise' all have previously unreleased bonus tracks that have never been reissued anywhere else. The original Broadcast CD of 'Western Culture' is bonus track-free, but the remaster adds a couple of tracks from a compilation album (and a prev. unrel. alternate take)

You forgot to list 'Desperate Straights' among the candidates. I only have the original UK Virgin CD (paired with Slapp Happy's 'Casablanca Moon'), but it sounds pretty good to me. ReR have since reissued it, claiming it as a remaster. I haven't heard it. If anyone else has, I'd love to know if it's an improvement.

'Unrest' is my favorite of all their albums. I recommend the remaster, but the completest will also need the original disc for the bonus tracks.

Next up would be 'Concerts.' There's only one edition available, but it's a mighty fine one.

Third on my favorites list is 'Western Culture.' They actually did this one right the first time around, but the "remaster" is the one that's currently in print, and you may want it for the bonus tracks (they're only about 6' in total - no big deal, really). Shame they didn't duplicate the cool label designs from the original Broadcast LP.

Fourth up would be 'In Praise Of Learning.' Both mixes are pretty okay, although I'm more partial to the original, myself. The remix version has an extra track. The original mix does have slightly better sound, though. (Jeff ain't wrong about the no-noising, but I don't find it to be too heavy. It's there, and I wish it weren't, but I can live with it.)

'Legend' comes fifth. The original CD (w/ bonus tracks) had fairly obnoxious overdubs (Lindsay Cooper - who wasn't even in the band at the time- replacing Geoff Leigh's parts, mainly). The "original mix" remastered CD sounds considerably better, but there is the surface noise issue. I still prefer the midrange-enhanced original UK vinyl version (note that the album was also released in the States without a title with a noticeably different mix; bass and treble mixed back up to normal. despite the "original mix" moniker used, the CD actually sounds a lot more like the US vinyl than the UK vinyl.)

'Desperate Straights' is probably the last of the bunch (though that only means that I give it four and three-quarters of a star out of five, unstead of five stars)

'Legend' is the most Canturbury-sounding (Egg/Hatfield/Caravan) of the bunch. 'Unrest' is more RIO-ish (Univers Zero/Faust/Art Zoyd) with a dash of UK free improv (Bailey/AMM/Parker) for flavor. 'Desperate Straights' (Slapp Happy & Henry Cow) came next, and is a wacky bunch of weird songs, heavily Eisler-influenced. Heavy on the whimsy. 'In Praise Of Learning' (Henry Cow & Slapp Happy) is fairly political (left-wing, natch) with a more composed feel than DS (i.e. more elaborate chord changed, movements within songs; hey I'm trying like heck to avoid using the word "prog" here, okay? cut me some slack) 'Concerts' (by this point, most of Slapp Happy had been assimilated into HC. also Robert Wyatt shows up for a couple of numbers) is very heavily impovised. They play a couple of old favorites, but the vast majority of this album is new material. 'Western Culture' was their all-instrumental effort to match the post-punk groups of the time (This Heat/The Fall/Cabaret Voltaire/The Residents). Unlike 'Concerts', this one is very focused. You can even hum along to most of it. If it were a Yes album, it would be 'Tormato.' But it's not. (Actually, a lot of it sounds like Iancu Dumitrescu, but you might not know who he is.)

NB: by the way, that Hulloder list credits 'Ruins' as being composed by Fred Frith & Mike Oldfield. That is NOT correct. Fred wrote it himself. As fas as I know Fred has never worked with Mike Oldfield (though Chris Cutler once played on a live performance of 'Tubular Bells' and played on a David Bedford album).

 

Wow! Thank you very much for your answers. I think I'll await the Japan issues for the studio albums and start looking for the Concerts 2CD (will this get a Japan re-release?).

http://diskunion.net/search_result.php?type=1&for=1&kwd=24808&no_alphabet=1&all_genre=1


Please report your findings about the Japan issues when they arrive.

 

Desperate Straights ReR cd and Virgin/Toshiba mini lp cd reissues sounds very fine. I am keeping these two new issues with my old lp.
----
Also do not miss the reissue of the "This heat" first album this month and Deceit en FEB 2006. After HC this band is my favorite RIO band.

 

Jesus...I was listening to "Concerts" today...what a great band they were...fantastic. Chris Cutler was/is just a phenominal drummer.

 

Interesting reading!

Frith did play with Oldfield, btw. On the 1973 performance of Tubular Bells aired on Old Grey Whistle Test, he is there along with Ratledge and others.

I wonder why in the hell Matt Murman at SAE no-noised In Praise of Learning? The damn thing was recorded in DBX! How much noise could it have had?

He also screwed up the Faust _Wumme Years__ boxset with no-noise, and for that he had master tapes!

 

So how does the ReR Desperate Straights remaster compare to the Virgin Casablanca Moon/Desperate Straights disc? I think the Virgin 2-fer sounds excellent, on par with the vinyl. I haven't heard the recent ReR Desperate Straights, but if it's anything like the other recent ReR remasters, I don't think I want to bother.

I'm a bit wary of these ReR "remasters" (Faust, Art Bears, etc.) that have been trickling out lately. All the ones I've heard just seem to take a recording that already had a decent CD release and adding a layer of NR to them.

 

Fred played on a TV broadcast of Tubular Bells. Mike Ratledge was also in the band. I have it on a CD-V around the house somewhere.

 

I don't think either remix or original mix Henry Cow ReR CDs sound bad. Remix Leg End that I have may be a bit bright but the detail is amazing. Unrest original mix sounds very good and not NR'ed at all.

 

The ESD Unrest is low volume, but turn it up a bit and it sounds fine. The bonus tracks are excellent.

Has anyone compared the Art Bears remasters to the original CDs?

 

I just compared the 3 cd issues of the Desperate Straights and i found that the new Japanese mini lp Toshiba/Arcangelo issue sound exactly the same like the old Virgin Casablanca Moon/Desperate Straights CD. The ReR remaster sounds different with less volume and compression. The remaster big difference is on the Dagmar Krause voice, very weak compared with the Virgin issues

About Legend I still have the German lp issue (87 738 IT Ariola Records Germany 1973).This lp is the winner compared with other lps and the cd sounds like a cassette when I play both at the same time.

 

I picked up 3 of their CDs on Boxing Day and I'm listening to In Praise of Learning now. Fabulous stuff...don't know how I missed them.

 

Hi. Have you compared the original Virgin LP of "In Praise Of Learning" with the different CD releases and with the recent limited vinyl reissue by ReR? http://www.discogs.com/Henry-Cow-In-Praise-Of-Learning/release/3245857

 

i always though Henry Cow was a rio or avant band since most writeups had them as such . never thought of them as canterbury. might have to check some of their stuff out.

 

The Virgin double of "Slapp Happy"/"Desperate Straights" has also been reissued as an SHM-CD (QIAG-70045). This has considerably better sound than the standard CD, despite seemingly using the same mastering. (Since some other SHM-CDs I have using identical mastering don't sound better than their CD counterparts, this makes no sense, but the improvement is definitely there, and I've even done blind testing to confirm it.)

 

They are. They don't sound anything like Caravan or Hatfield & the North. You will be disappointed if you're expecting a breezy prog-jazz sound from Henry Cow.

 

After adoring the Slapp Happy-Casablanca Moon LP for years and years, I thought I'd pick it up on CD. So I bought the Desperate Straits/Casablanca Moon CD, and boy was it a disappointment. It's not the same Casablanca Moon. I'm not quite certain what happened but I've been told some record company exec wanted them to make the album more listener friendly and so they changed it (for the worse, IMO). Many of the songs are so different I cannot even listen to them (after having the brilliant original versions etched into my memory). I'll probably never listen to this CD version again.

 

Not quite. The CD (whether the Virgin two-on-one or the Strange Days minisleeve edition) is musically identical to the original vinyl. The first recording — the one with Faust's rhythm section and without all the guest musicians — was rejected by Virgin back in 1974 and remained unreleased until 1980, when the band released it themselves as Acnalbasac Noom. Personally I think Richard Branson did them a huge favour, as the re-recorded version was in a different league entirely, but I know other collectors who feel as you do. As a footnote, the original album was simply entitled Slapp Happy; it's the Virgin two-for-one that dubs it Casablanca Moon.

 

There's more to it than that, I think. I have the Slapp Happy vinyl recorded for Virgin (ie the non-Faust version). I haven't listened to it for a long time, but I do remember it well. After I read PFA's message I looked up the twofer version on Spotify and played it, and while it indeed may be the same recording it does sound all out of whack compared to the original release. I don't know if it's a remix or remastering or what, but the extra instrumentation like strings and such (which don't appear on the Faust version) was more subtle on the record and sounds blaring and heavy-handed on this release.

 

I would say Leg-end is not that far away from Hatfield etc as later albums - they are definitely close in spirit

Has this box been mentioned yet ?


And on an additional note - this is a great novel with a great story about somebody´s introduction to Henry Cow and growing up in the Uk in the 1970´s
and discovering new music on the way

 

I second thematinggame's recommendation most heartily. If you have ever wanted to read a novel which includes a review of Tales from Topographic Oceans, look no further.

 

I'm surprised the UK LPs are hard to find. Branson made a lot more copies than he sold. Many years ago, I bought eight copies of Leg End for $1 apiece. Still have a couple of them.

 

I've never heard any other version of Slapp Happy/Casablanca Moon (the Virgin version) beyond the one on the twofer CD. And it sounds really bad. Definitely some kind of mastering issue. Will need to check out the ReR reissue of Desperate Straights, and I'm intrigued about the SHM-CD sounding better, even though it's the same mastering.

 

That's right of course, but my UK vinyl copy does have the title Casablanca Moon on the A-side label (not on the B-side, strangely). I know of UK copies that don't have this. No idea which one came first.