Art Bears - Albums Collection (2015) CD-Rip

An uncompromising avant-garde rock band consisting of Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, and vocalist extraordinaire Dagmar Krause. Frith and Cutler were longtime members of the seminal English radical political avant-garde art rock band Henry Cow, while Krause sang primarily with the fine German band Slapp Happy and in Henry Cow's latter years. The Art Bears were intended as a short-term project, but, even so, their three-year existence resulted in three excellent albums that relied more on shorter, more traditional, almost pop-oriented song forms than huge, complex musical and lyrical extrapolations. The political tinge of the Henry Cow years never went away, and it was unsurprising that Marxist rhetoric and anti-capitalist diatribes formed much of band's lyrical firmament. Frith, as he proved in Cow, was (and is) a guitarist of astonishing ability, combining a searing, complex technique reminiscent of the free music improvisations of seminal British guitarist Derek Bailey with a boyhood love of blues and early British rock & roll. Cutler, a pop music theorist as well as drummer, skittishly plays his trap kit, providing a propulsive rhythmic base upon which Frith can dazzle. Admittedly, Dagmar Krause's quasi-operatic, very German style can take some getting used to, but she is a daring singer, unafraid to bend and twist her voice into knots or screech with uncontrolled passion and exuberance. Their life was fleeting, but the Art Bears wrote and recorded bold, challenging, idiosyncratic music that, despite its occasional difficulty, is ultimately very rewarding.

Tracks:



1978 - Hopes And Fears

01. On Suicide 01:27
02. The Dividing Line 04:11
03. Joan 03:06
04. Maze 05:06
05. In Two Minds 08:58
06. Terrain 03:49
07. The Tube 03:05
08. The Dance 05:09
09. Pirate Song 01:28
10. Labyrinth 02:15
11. Riddle 02:49
12. Moeris Dancing 05:15
13. Piers 02:12
14. Silence 01;00
Bonus Tracks:
15. The Riddle 02:21
16. First Things First 01:55
17. March From The Dance 01:05
18. The Hermit 02:47



1979 - Winter Songs

01. The Bath Of Stars 01:45
02. First Things First 02:50
03. Gold 01:41
04. The Summer Wheel 02:47
05. The Slave 03:38
06. The Hermit 02:59
07. Rats And Monkeys 03:24
08. The Skeleton 03;11
09. The Winter Wheel 03:06
10. Man And Boy 03:21
11. Winter / War 03:05
12. Force 00:54
13. Three Figures 01:51
14. Three Wheels 03:35
15. Silence 01:00
Bonus Tracks:
16. Collapse 1979 04:51
17. Carved In Stone (Rebirth) 01:46



1981 - The World As It Is Today

01. The Song Of Investment Capital Overseas 02:38
02. Truth 02:56
03. Freedom 03:25
04. (Armed) Peace 02:30
05. Civilisation 04:52
06. Democracy 02:22
07. The Song Of The Martyrs 04:09
08. Law 00:51
09. The Song Of The Monopolists 01:48
10. The Song Of The Dignity Of Labour Under Capital 02:27
11. Albion Awake! (Times Unavailable) 04:08
12. Silence 01:00
Bonus Tracks:
13. Coda To Man And Boy 1981 07:17
14. All Hail 04:08
15. Duck And Cover: The Song Of Investment Capital Overseas 03:50