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Review
Not long after bassist John Greaves parted company from seminal politoco-avant-prog superstars Henry Cow, he hooked up with guitarist, lyricist and Renaissance man Peter Blegvad (also a Cow alumnus) and singer Lisa Herman to produce one of the great lost albums of the seventies. Surreal, infuriating, complex and silly in just about equal parts, Kew Rhone was probably never going to set the world alight, but the fact it was released on the same day as Never Mind The Bollocks didn't do it any favours.
Kew.Rhone is a singular record, but it doesn't exist in a vacuum. There are faint whiffs of the Cow and their forebears (Soft Machine, Zappa etc); there's a hint of Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill too. In fact Bley and then husband Mike Mantler are on the record (as well as providing the studio facilities); this association marked the continuation of the pair's interest in British art rock and probably accounts for the presence of free jazz giant Andrew Cyrille on the drums.
With such a line-up, the music probably couldn't have helped but be a bit odd. But when you add Blegvad's luminous (or should that be numinous) poetry to the mix, things get a whole lot weirder. Kew.Rhone's texts are stuffed full of anagrams and assorted wordplay; some songs refer to themselves or other songs on the record. And I can't think of any other songs anywhere that invite you to examine the illustrations on the sleeve for clarification ("Pipeline"). Peel's foe, not a set animal, laminates a tone of sleep.
Those who feel that obvious displays of intellectual prowess involving references to archaeology, pataphysics and other arcana have no place on a rock record may have trouble with this sort of thing. But there's plenty more to hold the attention; Blegvad's laconic drawl and Herman's pure, unaffected tone make a nice double act, plus there's the complexities of Greaves' musical settings to consider. These are every inch the equal of the texts in their complexity; tidily anarchic, stuffed with blunt, vaguely jazzy harmonies and melodies that wander unpredictably. "Twenty Two Proverbs" could almost be from a Bernstein musical. Sort of. There's something that's simultaneously catchy and ungraspable about the whole thing, which just might explain its appeal. Ludicrous, serious and (if the truth be known) much more seditious than the Pistols ever were. --Peter Marsh
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
How does one describe the undescribable? "Kew. Rhone" really defies all classification - in fact, it defies everything that's conventional or orthodox. It is a treasure trove of highly original music that has got elements of jazz, (progressive) rock, classical, Kurt Weill & several other styles rolled into an intriguing hybrid which nevertheless makes sense - probably in a similar way Lewis Carroll does make sense, I must add. As to the lyrical content, Peter Blegvad's highly literate texts are probably the most profoundly artistic "lyrics" ever to have been sung on a popular music recording. Superlatives are often empty and misleading, but this is probably as close as anything can get in being "the best ever recording" on my list.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
What a superb record. A consistently experimental and very highly listenable recording that melds avant garde jazz, progressive rock and contemporary classical music with a lyrical interest in lists, diagrams and palindromes. The playing, singing and composition/arrangements are generally first rate.
The album opens with a slightly clumsy intro which stacks some main thematic ideas in a kind of big band arrangement - then after the inauspicious start we are into the superbly energetic "Twenty Two Proverbs", in which a list of aphorisms are set with chromatic chord progressions and wonderful points of arrangement (close vocal harmonies and mixtures of solo and ensemble singing). This also has a blistering heavy electric guitar solo by Peter Blegvad in its centre.
"Seven Scenes..." is introspective and atmospheric with a lilting jazzy middle section... this is music with wide ranging expressive vocal melodies. The piano playing by John Greaves is also especially notable on this track.
"Kew.Rhone" and "Pipeline" - these pieces are real highlights - great playing, great compositions, great rhythm and feel, great complex melodic and harmonic progressions. And... Mike Mantler's trumpet solo on "Pipeline" - awesome!
"Catalogue..." returns to introspection at the start and runs through some quite demented ostinatos and virtuosic fast singing... always growing in intensity throughout the piece
There is a bit of a dip in quality with "One Footnote" which is short, brash and humorous. "Three Tenses Onanism" has a nice piano intro but ultimately comes across as unnecessarily rambling and atonal - it is perhaps the most extremely avant garde piece on the album with a vocal by Peter Blegvad.
"Nine Mineral Emblems" is back on form - introspective at the start and then with a change to some very tasty jazzy energetic playing dominated by some outstanding drumming and bass playing.
"Apricot" isn't of the quality of the rest of the album, although Mike Mantler's trumpet solo is excellent.
"Gegenstand" is an enigmatic, mysterious and spare but melodically complex epilogue - it leaves the album on a pensive note.
The version I have also has a CD Rom component with music, text and visuals allowing those interested to unpick some of the conceptual underpinnings of the work.
This music is unique as it represents the fusing of American experimental ensemble jazz (a la Carla Bley/Mike Mantler/Frank Zappa (in his big band jazzish works) with an English avant jazz rock sensibility that would include Henry Cow, National Health etc. Many more people should know about this excellent and unique music.
The album opens with a slightly clumsy intro which stacks some main thematic ideas in a kind of big band arrangement - then after the inauspicious start we are into the superbly energetic "Twenty Two Proverbs", in which a list of aphorisms are set with chromatic chord progressions and wonderful points of arrangement (close vocal harmonies and mixtures of solo and ensemble singing). This also has a blistering heavy electric guitar solo by Peter Blegvad in its centre.
"Seven Scenes..." is introspective and atmospheric with a lilting jazzy middle section... this is music with wide ranging expressive vocal melodies. The piano playing by John Greaves is also especially notable on this track.
"Kew.Rhone" and "Pipeline" - these pieces are real highlights - great playing, great compositions, great rhythm and feel, great complex melodic and harmonic progressions. And... Mike Mantler's trumpet solo on "Pipeline" - awesome!
"Catalogue..." returns to introspection at the start and runs through some quite demented ostinatos and virtuosic fast singing... always growing in intensity throughout the piece
There is a bit of a dip in quality with "One Footnote" which is short, brash and humorous. "Three Tenses Onanism" has a nice piano intro but ultimately comes across as unnecessarily rambling and atonal - it is perhaps the most extremely avant garde piece on the album with a vocal by Peter Blegvad.
"Nine Mineral Emblems" is back on form - introspective at the start and then with a change to some very tasty jazzy energetic playing dominated by some outstanding drumming and bass playing.
"Apricot" isn't of the quality of the rest of the album, although Mike Mantler's trumpet solo is excellent.
"Gegenstand" is an enigmatic, mysterious and spare but melodically complex epilogue - it leaves the album on a pensive note.
The version I have also has a CD Rom component with music, text and visuals allowing those interested to unpick some of the conceptual underpinnings of the work.
This music is unique as it represents the fusing of American experimental ensemble jazz (a la Carla Bley/Mike Mantler/Frank Zappa (in his big band jazzish works) with an English avant jazz rock sensibility that would include Henry Cow, National Health etc. Many more people should know about this excellent and unique music.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
The first web album?
6 Feb 2000
Format:Audio CD
I shall be brief. After spending nearly ten years on the lookout for Kew.Rhone. I found a CD release stuck in the 'G's in Virgin. One copy. So I bought it. It was a pleasure to hear the complex and witty (as opposed to deadening) melodies and lyrics, with the added bonus of Carla Bley's limpid orchestrations. This is music moving at an amazing pace - for art rockers to be finally playing with the big boys (Andrew Cyrille; Michael Mantler) and girls (Carla). But the joyful shock came when I played the record on my new PC. A very deceptively quiet intelligence had included a sound and image archive lasting well over one hour (to explore all the twists) and including unreleased tracks from the album (hidden), interviews, animations and full length alternative versions by none less than Robert Wyatt. Cult! Simply sublime. Buy it and weep that Greaves and Blegvad aren't considered as important as Becker and Fagen, if not (quite) Lennon-McCartney.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Awesome partially-buried gem of mid-1970's mutant music
26 Oct 1998
Format:Audio CD
Amazingly witty and musically intricate, more pop sounding than Henry Cow, more uplifting than the Art Bears or Cassiber, yet more dissonant than Hatfield and the North, this is one of the buried treasures of 1970's "progressive-experimental" rock-jazz music (for lack of a better label). Extremely listenable, entertaining, even erudite, if not obscurantist. Some lyrics are anagrams on Kew.Rhone, others are palindromes, e.g. "Peel's foe not a set animal laminates a tone of sleep", still others are musings on the first excavations of Mastodons (as physically carried out and depicted in painting by Peel himself). Data tracks accompany the audio-CD, with comments on the meanings of the songs. They just don't make 'em like this any more.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A reminder of when intelligence was almost fashionable.
17 Sep 2001
Format:Audio CD
Having been a big fan of Henry Cow, I had heard of this album, but had never seen it in a shop, and therefore I only obtained a copy a couple of months ago. I think I must have played it every day since then. John Greaves, who I knew primarily as a superb and inovative bass player and strong vocalist, proves himself to be a fantastic composer (and pretty good pianist, too). Peter Blegvad's lyrics are witty (if mind bogglingly obscure) and the other musicians on this record are superb. It is one of the most intelligent records I have heard in many years, and yet still has plenty of tunes you could whistle, if you were so inclined.
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