From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V11 #32 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Monday, February 16 2009 Volume 11 : Number 032 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [idealcopy] OT: Henry Cow's 40th Anniversary Box Sets [giluz Subject: [idealcopy] OT: Henry Cow's 40th Anniversary Box Sets Finally received the 2 tour boxes. The 1st box, containing the remastered studio albums, is still on its way. The Road boxes span performances from the early till the late '70's, all in adequate and sometimes very good quality - most of the live versions are better than the studio ones, and the linear notes are detailed and illuminating as one might expect from an ReR release. But the best, in my opinion, is the DVD of a live performance in Switzerland, 1976, the only video footage of Henry Cow. An electrifying performance which encompasses all of HC's virtues as a live band - the balance between improvised and written music, the right combination of jazz, rock and modern classical and the inevitable connection between art and politics. Watching Dagmar Krause's performance at the last 5 minutes of "Living in the Heart of the Beast" makes you want to storm the streets of your town in search of the revolution (none found in Tel-Aviv, less than a week after Israel elected its most extreme right-wing parliament ever). This is revolutionary music, not only because it addresses political issues in its lyrics, and not only because it conforms with marxist theories (Adorno and Brecht, especially) - mainly because each musician, and most of them are virtuose multi instrumentalists, play like the next note will be the last he (or she) would ever play. The dedication, commitment and hunger, quite noticeable in the recordings but so much more so in the video, make this one of the best performances I watched on video, and reminded me what a great band they were. "Art is not a mirror - it is a hammer", as quoted in the back sleeve of "In Praise of Learning" (a quote from John Grierson, the founder of the British Documentary Movement in the 1920's, director producer and theorist who defined documentary film more than any other person) is still the best description for HC. The complete 3 boxes (14 CD's + 1 DVD) cost only 99 quid. All of the details are at http://www.rermegacorp.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=RM&Category_Code=CU giluz - -- Now playing: http://www.last.fm/user/giluz/ ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V11 #32 *******************************