Hatfield and the North (Virgin)

My favourite part on this Hatfield and the North record (a record which actually is packed with numerous small pleasures) comes about 2/3 of the way through 'Son of "There's No Place Like Homerton"', the longest piece on the record; some bright, piercing tones float over the otherwise melodic jam, sticking out like if Stereolab guested on just ten seconds of the song, though I think its actually a flute or woodwinds. It introduces a long, beautiful vocal section where the three female vocalists who are mostly relegated to backing roles come to the forefront. They chant in a round-like pattern, setting down some moments of total magic which has traces of English folk, early music, and whatever a Greek chorus is supposed to be. It's this part I keep coming back to whenever I listen to this record, the first side of which otherwise passes into the background, a melodic, rolling example of Canterbury scene prog in an advanced iteration. The lineup has Pip Pyle from Gong, Phil Miller from Matching Mole, and two guys from Caravan, one the brother of the 'other' Steve Miller who did that underrated duet record with Lol Coxhill -- and it sounds accordingly like Canterbury music was supposed to sound. All of the musicianship is excellent and in that style which feels hopelessly dated now - tight changes, affected guitars, Robert Wyatt guest spots, fast instrumental interplay, some great juxtapositions (a phone rings near the end of 'Fol de Rol' and the singing is finished through it; there's some concrète dabbling in other incidental spots), and songs with titles like 'Shaving is Boring'. They're capable of some engaging heat - the aggressive ending of 'Rifferama' sounds exactly how you'd expect a song called 'Rifferama' to sound. Whenever I try to explain to people that I like prog rock, I should cite records like this as an example; it's not as far out or spazzy as more European NWW-list stuff, but it's also a hell of a lot more interesting than Yes or ELP. The weirdness is controlled, and it's brainy without losing sight of music's power to create images and memories; sometimes the bass playing is a bit overbearing, which is a shame because the band can create some pretty nice soundworlds with basic rock instrumentation. The Pyle-penned 'Shaving' retains the acid edge of Gong, minus Daevid Allen (or anyone else) singing, and with an awesome, phenomenal space rock crescendo. Matching Mole was more fun of course, since it was Wyatt's band through and through, and I have a huge soft spot for the first National Health album, a band which emerged out of Hatfield, particularly because of the epic jam 'Tenemos Roads', probably the high point of this whole genre of music. 

Goblin - 'Suspiria' (Attic)

Here's a Canadian pressing of an extremely popular soundtrack from a film that I saw back in college, a cult classic I guess, though I thought it was pretty silly. What I liked about the film - essentially all I can remember - is the weird shit it did with spatial relationships. The house where the heroine is trapped (or whatever the hell the plot was) felt unnavigable, like the inside was bigger than the outside, and Argento tossed aside film conventions to make this sense of unease. It's kinda like the good half of that Mark Z. Danielewsky novel House of Leaves, and not the boring James Dean part. Goblin are loved by horror film fans more than I think by Italian progheads, though they aren't disrespected by any means. I'm much closer to an Italian proghead and always found the soundtrack basis of their work a little bit off-putting, but that's just a personal problem, cause you'll see lots of soundtracks here. Listening now to Suspiria, I really like the way that certain repetitive strings oscillate on tracks like 'Witch'; it cuts through the haunting synths which really root this a lot closer to whatever genre Einsterzende Neubauten are (is that 'industrial'?) or early Nurse with Wound than to Area. I mean, this is some good music! Some really dark and sketchy moods, but it's aggressive, not content to just sit back and be creepy. Suspiria the soundtrack is a soundtrack of active terror, which even underneath the most uncomfortable moments still maintains a creeping unease, so you never have a respite. There's some funky synth-lines on 'Markos' that takes things more towards synth-pop, though it stays instrumental and never resolves things - the percussion is flamboyant and the lead instrument in many ways. 'Blind Concert' is the typical prog-rock sounding track, an arena-esque instrumental with long ripping guitar solos and a more conventional feel; I'm sure it appears in the film, but this is undeniably a rock song and less soundtracky. It's OK but I couldn't hear anything in one listen to make Goblin stand out from other prog bands of the era; if anything, it's a bit indistinct especially given how aggressively idiosyncratic the rest of the record is. Closer 'Death Waltz' is a bit of old timey music, surely used in the film for a creepy effect but here serving as a carnivalesque closer. They put out a ton of records in their career and I'm sure there are Goblin completists out there, but Suspiria is all I need, just as it's the only Dario Argento film I've ever bothered to see. Sometimes you know your limits and while this is a fine record, I'm cool to stop here.

Area - 'Crac!' (Cramps)

Is this actually a slight step backwards? I mean, it's awesome for sure, but a bit more restrained compared to the electronic mind-fuckery of it's precedent. The experimentation seems slightly more relegated to the details here; with headphones there's some insane dressing on these salads but not as much meat, y'know? Except for the last song, which is a goofy, lurching stop-start debacle, Crac! is very much a 'prog rock' album. I'm not complaining - I guess Area decided to make Crac! a more "guts" album, and as I listen I can't stop tapping my feet (in 27/9 time) and grooving on it anyway. Demetrio is in fine form, blasting away on the opening track and doing some weird American-accented vocalising on 'La Mela di Odessa (1920)' (which it fits the funk-horn stomp). Ares Tavolazzi's basso elettrico is not just played funkier than before, but it has that somewhat "boingy" quality that you expect from progressive rock. Some of these riffs are epic, and some of the melodies are actually catchy. In "Gioia e Rivoluzione" Area present an actual "pop" song - with acoustic guitar strum, bouncy bassline, and relatively accessibly singing, but I don't think they're selling out - just taking their message of revolution politicalVOCALmusic to a larger audience. So yeah, not my favorite, but bonus points because a 30-year old (perfectly preserved) sticker of the 4xegg cover image fell out of the jacket.

Area - 'Arbeit Macht Frei' (Cramps)

Here's the thing about the Discloated Underbite Spinal Alphabetised Encourager Template: every once in awhile, without realising it, you'll find yourself immersed deep into the Impenetrable Prog Gauntlet. It's hard to see the end of it, since there's so many weird angles and changes, and often a good explorer has been known to disappear in the darkest regions of the IPG, never to be seen again. Even though it's against official Policy, I'm gonna warn you that the last record we looked at (Arbete and Fritid) actually was the secret entrance to one such Gauntlet, which is dominated by a gang of mostly Italians called Area. Area subtitled their name with "international popular group" which was perhaps meant to be ironic. They were stridently political, but I don't understand Italian and I have no idea what it means to be stridently political in Italy, since I just assume that everyone is at least somewhat political. After all, fascists and commies are still fire-bombing each other in the streets every week. Therefore, I'm incapable of dissecting the layers of irony and/or passion captured by the title and artwork. I like to think of Area as "prog as fuck" because they employ many of the concepts that have created our idea of Progressive Rock in the 1970s: jaw-droppingly fast contrapuntal riffs, complex neo-classical song structures, the occasional tendency to go super dorky with flutes, 6-string bass or smooth saxophones, and a willingness to fuck around and break rules. How much the latter concept is explored generally has a direct correlation with how much I like a band, because I'm not really that interested in flashy showmanship. Arbeit Macht Frei has showmaship a-plenty, though there's significantly less investment in the rulebreaking category than their later records. But it's a debut album, and a grand statement for sure. Vocalist Demetrio Statos doesn't overpower the band, though his dramatic opera voice may not be for everyone. This is the only Area record I would put in the same box with commercial prog like Yes and Crimson; there's definite group jamming and heavily affected instrumentation (though the guitar and keyboards, which do have great tones, don't leap away from Western tuning or anything). It's only the last song, 'L'abbattimento dello Zeppelin' that hints at the gradual rejection of rock music that is to follow - the contrabasson gets a little bit more free (perhaps in reference to the title), and the guitar solo sounds like it's off a Wooden Shjips record. Statos's weird mumbling/yelling in the middle is layered over some sparse, surreal free improv and it's just weird, man - til the rock kicks back in, or does it? Open up the gatefold cover and it explains all. A photo of a concentration camp bearing the titular inscription, across from a handgun emblazoned with the Area logo - it's like Marco Ferreri's object from Dillinger e morto going head to toe with the forces of fascism, through the music of Area. Or something. I noticed that the musicians all look very tired in the photo; I guess it's hard work playing that fast and intricately.

A Certain Ratio - 'To Each...' (Factory)

Source: Ross, of course, 22 May 2002 for a couple bucks.

Another gatefold, though I'm not so down with the paintings (by Ann); Peter Christopherson
is credited with 'Cover co-ordination' so hooray for that. These moody Mancunians went to New Jersey to record this and maybe this setting is what pumped a little American disco life into their veins. The bass and clattery drums drive the songs, which to be honest lack a bit in the songwriting department. Things get a bit Seinfeld and there's some porn guitar, but the vocals remind you that this is a record from a Manchester band in 1980. Always gotta love the slight fascist overtones on these things, both in the band name and the weird photo of uniformed men surrounded by red borders (Sleazy's co-ordination again!). This is a great record to listen to if you live in the North, wear mostly black, and have your own club night where you don't play anything made after 1981 except for 'Da Da Da' by Trio. Certainly the long Kraftwerky moments are to be appreciated but you don't know for sure because they aren't as direct as you'd like. A Certain Ratio are probably one of the most interesting 'big' bands from this era but I never completely clicked with them- maybe it's too funky or maybe this was just a consolation prize cause I don't have any Crispy Ambulance albums.