Criminally underrated outside of musicians’ circles despite his legendary status and fantastic track records, both as member HENRY COW and a solo artist, Fred Frith couldn’t care more things not pertaining to music – but fortunately, there’s always music for the guitarist to explore. And explore further tuneful vistas is what he’s been doing for more than half a century now, 2024’s “Guitar Solos / Fifty” marking the titular anniversary of Fred’s career as a performer in his own right, and stopping seems to be out of the question for Frith who’s adding two more entries to his discography now.
MARIÁ PORTUGAL –
Matter
Out now, “Matter” finds the veteran in the company of Mariá Portugal, a singing drummer from Brazil whose Tropicália-drenched pieces are stricken with electronica, the genre-bending mélange quite appealing to Frith who brings to the table European tradition of minimalistic improvs, so the results of the two composers’ joint efforts are impressively unexpected and arresting. It should be noted that Fred and Mariá call it their debut offering, thus suggesting there can be more music from where this one came from.
1. Things Considered
2. See Through Blind
3. Looking Up
4. O tempo e sua secura
Just as unexpected and arresting is “Fred Frith And The Gravity Band” which will see the light of day on December 12th. It’s a concert recording from 2014 that finds Fred and his ensemble play live almost all of his 1980 classic “Gravity” – substituting the omitted numbers with a newer cuts including the title track of “Killing Time” by MASSACRE, the guitarist’s collaboration with Bill Laswell and Fred Maher. THE GRAVITY BAND build on the album where focus was on the guitarist’s talent as a writer as opposed to improviser and introduce the element of unpredictability to the original record’s discipline, so while it took more than a decade to bring the recordings made in Nijmegen, The Netherlands and Moers, Germany to the global audience, the outcome was worth the wait.
Fred Frith And The Gravity Band
1. The Boy Beats The Rams
2. Spring Any Day Now
3. Don’t Cry For Me
4. The Hands Of The Juggler
5. Norrgården Nyvla
6. Year Of the Monkey
7. What A Dilemma
8. Another Crack In The Concrete
9. Come Across
10. Dancing In the Street
11. Slap Dance
12. A Career In Real Estate
13. Dancing in Nijmegen, Holland
14. Killing Time
15. Not Quite Tom
