vant-garde rock & roll of 1970s vintage – especially, it must be said, of the British variety – doesn't typically age very well. And although Henry Cow was quite a unique ensemble, even by the standards of the 1970s avant-garde, it would be silly to deny that much of the music captured on these two live discs (originally released on LP in 1976) sounds pretty dated…
A team-up with Slapp Happy may seem an obvious meeting of minds in 2000, but not at the time (1975) when all they really shared was a Marxist outlook and a record label (Virgin). The two bands had already recorded Desperate Straights, which focused more on songs and Dagmar Krause's vocals…
Political astuteness aside, Henry Cow's Leg End is simply a busy musical trip, comprised of snaking rhythms, unorthodox time signatures, and incongruous waves of multiple instruments that actually culminate in some appealing yet complex progressive rock…
By this point Henry Cow consisted of guitarist Fred Frith, drummer Chris Cutler, bassist John Greaves, keyboardist Tim Hodgkinson, and, of particular importance to the band's sound at this point, bassoonist Lindsay Cooper. As is so often the case with avant-garde rock & roll, it's the composed pieces that work best, and the fact that Frith is responsible for the majority of them is significant…
The group's fourth and final studio LP, Western Culture remained for a long time Henry Cow's hidden treasure. Two factors were instrumental to its occultation (and one more than the other): first, it was not released by Virgin like the other ones; second, it did not have the "sock" artwork common to its brothers…
Filmed at London's Forum Theater in 2014, Live from London is electronic violinist, dancer, and YouTube sensation Lindsey Stirling's first concert DVD/CD. Filmed and recorded during her 2014 tour in support of her second studio album Shatter Me, which reached number two on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, the 16-track collection features dynamic performances of some of Stirling's most resonant classical-pop confections, including "All of Me," "Crystallize," "Beyond the Veil," and "Stars Align."