WE've MOVED
see new address and contact email in ABOUT US
Friends and Enemies
Fred Frith (electric
and acoustic guitars, 4 & 6 string basses, 'drums', violin, marimba, piano, casio 202
organ)
Henry Kaiser (electric
and acoustic guitars, 6 string bass, 'drums', electric sitar, banjo, piano)
Oliver DiCicco (engineering)
Here we have a re-release of Frith and Kaiser's two wonderful records "With Friends Like These" from 1979 and "Who Needs Enemies" from 1983, both on the now defunct Metalanguage label, plus an entire unreleased live album from 1984 AND 6 new tracks recorded in 1999 specially for this two cd set. Now I can finally throw away that old analog cassette of these records that I've been praying wouldn't disintegrate entirely.
The cds are broken up so that each gives you a side from each record, plus two or three new tracks. A little history lesson in each.I have a long history with these records, 'With Friends Like These " being one of the first all-improv records I ever heard. Itıs a noisy/ joyful stomping romp through the world of out guitar playing. The second album is a little more structured (for lack of a better term) and has a couple of scary acoustic blues numbers on it. The drum machines wear a little thin with me, but hey, I'm a drummer! The live stuff is more akin to the second record, but still wonderful for having never been heard. And the new tracks make it seem like these two still play together often.
If you play guitar, and Improvise, and you've never heard these records, I suggest you find this set of discs and dig in. If you have heard them, but don't own them, here's an easy way to obtain them without having to pay record-collector prices for them.
Kudos to Cuneiform for making this available. Now if only someone would re-release "Getting A Head" , I'd be in heaven.
-jeph jerman
Cuneiform Records
P.O.Box 8427
Silver Spring MD 20907-8427
http://members.aol.com/Cuneiform2/cuneiform.html