REVIEWS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES
Of Historical Interest
"Canterburied Sounds" is a 4-disc compilation of home tapes and dodgy live recordings made 1962-1972 in Canterbury England, the birthplace of so much great music. Brian Hopper is to be commended for assembling this set -- but truth be told, the sound quality is marginal at best (unlistenable at worst!) and the quality of the music is rarely above "for SERIOUS collectors only."
Robert carlberg 2/5 04.07.2009 (AMAZON)
Volume 1
The Canterburied Sounds collection is alternately edifying and disappointing, nowhere more so than on its first volume. This volume is primarily focused on the Wilde Flowers, gathering odds and ends that hadn't appeared on the excellent overview of this under-recorded prototype of all Canterbury bands. This includes such potential gems as the earliest known recording of any of this creative axis: two songs recorded in late 1962 by Brian Hopper and Robert Wyatt (the bizarrely droning, folkish "Mummie"); one, "Man in the Deaf Corner," also features keyboardist Mike Ratledge and bassist Hugh Hopper, making it in essence the very first Soft Machine recording. The problem -- aside from the forgivably but nevertheless annoyingly dodgy sound on most of these home-recorded demos -- is that many of these songs are aimless jams and tiresome experiments that even the most die-hard fans might find kind of dull; one would have to be monomaniacally devoted to the Canterbury Scene to make it over halfway into the 12-minute Mike Ratledge/Brian Hopper duet "Da-Da-Dee/Bolivar Blues," and the live rehearsal/jam of "You Really Got Me" and "Thinking of You Baby" sounds like the work of a sloppy garage band that's broken into dad's beer stash. Two early psychedelic explorations by Caravan bookend the album, but while neither is actually bad, they're not lost treasures, either. For historical purposes only.
Stewart Mason (ALLMUSIC)
So I went looking through the archives (because I was at one point one of those losers who saves a copy of everything they write) for a review of the Giles, Giles, and Fripp LP I wrote ten years back, and I found this one, which I wrote around the same time. Here it is in its entirety, and if it sucks, that's because I was a loser ten years ago. Also, I was a great deal more sweary back then, so please excuse the bad language.
I admit it- the only reason I bought this thing was because I found it on sale
at a domestic price (usually you only see Voiceprint CDs for high prices like
$22.99 a pop in stores, a price I would NEVER have paid for something I knew
beforehand to be of such limited interest) when I was up in Columbus for the
Roger Waters concert (still fucking great, IMO, but then I knew mostly what to
expect beforehand). Magnolia Thunderpussy also had Vol. 1, but the
tracklisting looked better on Vol. 2, so I got that. While I was there I also
picked up a couple other things of marginal interest to progheads, like the
Giles Giles and Fripp album, which I will not review here on the grounds that
I have a short attention span, I can't find the nail clippers, my teeth hurt,
and there are all-around better things I could be doing than analyzing "The
Crukster". I have overcome such qualms as pertains to this release, though.
It has been said regarding this series of releases that it doesn't stand up to
even bootlegs in quality or selection. I have to disagree on this count; the
volume I have holds up pretty well as a bootleg, about on the level of Syd
Barrett's "Rhamadam"- more likely to irritate those who are not fans more than
anything else, but with some immense rewards for those into this stuff. Like
"Rhamadam", though, this release has its share of just plain crap. Song by song:
Carazobe: Well, I guess it says a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of
this release, or at least the nature of it, that the album opens with a
17-minute jam between Caravan and Zobe. While this does include the infamous
Zobe, it also has the benefit of including Caravan, who are known for
generally kicking booty and suchlike. It's not bad jamming- not in the league
of Phallus Dei, no, but pleasant to listen to. Far more psych than prog, I'd say.
Instant Pussy: Well, maybe a misnomer, as the theme that is generally known as
"Instant Pussy" (from the first Matching Mole album) only comes into play in
the last minute or so. The first two minutes or so aren't otherwise released
in any format, AFAIK, and feature Wyatt's piano playing and singing. A
brilliant composition, marred only by the truly crap sound quality on it. The lyrics I can make out:
and later we had coffee and the cream spilled on the sheets
and you said leave it i can clean it when you [inaudible]
and underneath the chaos of your hair around your face and shoulders
you were thinking 'bastard, you bastard'
i woke up in the morning saw you face upon the pillow
where you dribbled in the night like a baby and the way you
draped the sheets around your head above your soft and fragile body
then i wanted to stay with you forever
and i caught your naked eyelid by the makeup i'd been ...
...oh, hell, I give up. There are two more verses. Maybe I'll try again later to make them out. Brilliant, completely.
Esther's Nose Job- A hotel room demo from January '69. Not as full-fledged as
the version that appeared on Volume Two, recorded a month later (only about 7
minutes plus two minutes worth of retakes in this incarnation), but more
fleshed out than the Kevin Ayers live versions from '68. They had, at least,
finished writing the ending at this point. Anyway, particularly fascinating
for me as I'm a great fan of this era, and a great cut besides. Sound quality
is, of course, bootleggy.
Moorish- Some people would probably characterize this is another iteration of
the endless quasi-experimental wanking that apparently fills this series- an
8-minute instrumental jam between Brian Hopper and Robert Wyatt- but I
actually rather like this. Based on a simple, yet moody, Brian Hopper chord
progression, Wyatt creates some nice multi-instrumental sound atmospherics on
this cut. Not a standout on this CD, but not a total dud either.
Summertime- Well, no, I wouldn't characterize this as a total dud either. OK,
it's just another rendition of a jazz standard, and there's nothing of
intrinsic interest here, particularly not anything prefiguring the Soft
Machine or anything like that (I believe it's Ratledge and Wyatt playing on
this track), but is a nice version.
Indian Rope Man: Ah! Finally! A total dud! Brian Hopper would perhaps like
to think that his band Zobe is lamented as one of the lost unrecorded
Canterbury greats, and people will flock to this release to get some taste of
the splendor that was Zobe. No such luck. Zobe is pretty much a crap blues
band, and I can't imagine that anybody would particularly want to hear them,
especially the low-quality live tapes represented here. Of course, following
an inviolable Usenet law, somebody will now followup and say they bought the
whole Canterburied Sounds set specifically for Zobe's contributions, that Zobe
is the best band ever, etc. However, I am betting that that person will be
Brian Hopper's mum.
Drumsolo: I hate drum solos. Even if Robert Wyatt's playing them. Oh well- at least it's short.
Mirror for the Day: Damn shame it's short. I haven't heard the released
songs, but the guitar fragments Pye Hastings is working out here are
beautiful.
Love Song with Cello: Some people took a shine to this on the grounds that, in
opposition to many of the tunes on this set, Wyatt actually SINGS on it.
Well, yes, he does sing, but that doesn't redeem it from being wanky
experimentalism at its worst. Nothing remotely "lovely" about it. The liner
notes point out that this was an excerpt from a much longer session. If this
is the best thing that came out of this session, I shudder to hear the rest of
it. Everybody has failed experiments, and I'm sure this kind of thing helped
a lot to develop the Canterbury sound, but I still have no great desire to
hear it.
As I Feel I Die (Caravan): I admit it; I'm almost completely unfamiliar with
Caravan. But this song is magnificent. Quintessential Canterbury. If I had
the original album this was on, I probably wouldn't rate it nearly so high,
but as it is, it's a highlight.
Where But For Caravan Would I?: The second longest track on the album,
clocking in at a good 12 minutes; I don't like this one as much as "As I Feel
I Die", but it's not bad, at that. A good way to finish.
Overall judgment? Fairly nice, worth having from my vantage point, for the
price I got it at. Volume 1 might be worth checking out, too, judging from
the tracklist. There are only about three tracks, none very long, on the
whole CD that I would judge as completely worthless, totaling about 10 minutes
of a 70 minute running time. 3 and 4 look almost totally worthless. Outtakes
from rehearsals that didn't make it on the "Wilde Flowers" CD, and, oh joy,
more ZOBE! Obviously not a good starting place for the Canterbury-curious,
but there's enough here to make it worth having for the true aficionado or
just plain fanboy.
"Business is great. People are terrific. Life is wonderful." - seen on the back of a dump truck on the Watterson
rushomancy 28.03.2009 (RATEYOURMUSIC)
|
