Henry Cow
Henry Cow were one of the best known and most widely traveled English bands of the progressive era (though only a cult favorite in the U.S. and actually more popular in Continental Europe than in their home country), and their music has aged amazingly well over the ensuing decades due to the group's diverse influences and uncompromising creativity.
Henry Cow were one of the best known and most widely traveled English bands of the progressive era (though only a cult favorite in the U.S. and actually more popular in Continental Europe than in their home country), and their music has aged amazingly well over the ensuing decades due to the group's diverse influences and uncompromising creativity.
Glastonbury And Elsewhere
*Comes in a CD-sized papersleeve album replica (gatefold), with obi-strip and insert of notes mostly in Japanese..2024 repress* Henry Cow is not only a key group on the Canterbury scene, but later organised Rock In Opposition and is a key figure in avant-rock worldwide. This album is a compilation of previously unreleased live performances at all five venues from their 1972 Glastonbury festival to their 1977 show in Bilbao, Spain. Special Japanese paper-jacket and SHM-CD release!
Western Culture
*Comes in a CD-sized papersleeve album replica (gatefold), with obi-strip and insert of notes mostly in Japanese..2024 repress* The differences between the Art Bears and the rest of the band in terms of musical direction became apparent and the band decided to split up. This was the last album produced by the band. It consists of compositions by Tim Hodgkinson and Lindsay Cooper, who did not go on to join the Art Bears, and is an all-instrumental, highly complex performance of completely constru…
Concerts
*Limited edition SHM-CD, comes in gatefold mini lp replica with obi & Japanese insert...2024 repress* This live album is a collection of performances from Henry Cow's heyday, collected from several concerts and released live. Listening to it, one can clearly hear the precision of their songs and the skill with which they perform them. The album has a lot to offer Canterbury fans, including a performance with Robert Wyatt, and the addition of songs by Wyatt and Matching Mole. Long-awaited encore …
In Praise of Learning
*Comes in a CD-sized papersleeve album replica (gatefold), with obi-strip and insert of notes mostly in Japanese..2024 repress* This album was recorded at about the same time as Desperate Straights, the album that combined with Slap Happy and was recorded under a joint name. With the addition of Dubmar, there are more vocal numbers and the ensemble is as brilliant as on the previous album. The album is a good blend of the interest in improvisation shown on the previous album. Long-awaited encore…
Unrest
*Comes in a CD-sized papersleeve album replica (gatefold), with obi-strip and insert of notes mostly in Japanese..2024 repress* Second release from 1974. The three tracks on the analogue A-side are all meticulously arranged, even the improvisation-style passages, and show that the sound of early Henry Cow had reached its peak. The B-side is an improvisation-driven piece that hints at the possibilities of Cow's later work. Long-awaited encore pressing in paper jacket, 7 bonus tracks, remastered i…
Leg End
*Comes in a CD-sized papersleeve album replica (gatefold), with obi-strip and insert of notes mostly in Japanese..2024 repress* Debut album released in 1973 by Henry Cow, one of Canterbury's most important bands, formed around Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson, who were students at Cambridge University. It was signed to Virgin and recorded at Manor Studios. The songs had reached maturity in their earlier shows, and the studio work was highly accomplished, with intelligent, avant-garde songs produced…
The Henry Cow Box Redux: The Complete Henry Cow
**17 CDs, 1 DVD and 250 pages of histories, chronology, testimony and commentaries by the band, sundry contemporary documents, and rare photographs – in a sturdy box.** This collection brings together in an inexpensive and definitive edition the full contents of all earlier releases, with the addition of a further 60pp booklet of newly unearthed, or commissioned, band commentaries, pictures and other documents prepared specifically for this box - as well as re-mastered versions of all the studio…
Stockholm & Göteborg
Originally released on CD as part of the 40th anniversary Henry Cow Box and reissued here for the first time on vinyl, these high quality Swedish Radio live recording, made in 1977, include previously unreleased material including Tim Hodgkinson's "Erk Gah", a long, epic, large scale composition considered as one of Cow peaks, a breathtaking rendition of Phil Ochs' "No More Songs"- in fact the only real song ever played by Henry Cow - and Fred Frith's "The March", plus the legendary "Ottawa Song…
Henry Cow: The World Is a Problem
In its open improvisations, lapidary lyrics, errant melodies, and relentless pursuit of spontaneity, the British experimental band Henry Cow pushed rock music to its limits.Its rotating personnel, sprung from rock, free jazz, and orchestral worlds, synthesized a distinct sound that troubled genre lines, and with this musical diversity came a mixed politics, including Maoism, communism, feminism, and Italian Marxism.In Henry Cow: The World Is a Problem, Benjamin Piekut tells the band’s story —fro…
Desperate Straights
Desperate Straights was the first result of the historical meeting between Slapp Happy, the German/English Avant-Pop band and the apparently incompatible Henry Cow. Recorded at Virgin Record's Manor Studios in 1974 and properly re-mastered by Bob Drake, Desperate Straights stands as a real piece of Art from another time. A full set of great songs, including gems like "Bad Alchemy" and "Apes in Capes", arranged and performed by an amazing collective featuring Dagmar Krause's unique voice, Peter B…
The Road: Volumes 1-5
2015 Restock. There are bands whose finest work allows its roots full exposure while burying them. Henry Cow was one of these, emerging at a time of widespread upheaval and making bold new statements and fashioning order of the resultant chaos. The label has a history of producing similarly fine compendiums, most notably from groups such as Faust, Art Bears and This Heat, but the Cow set is a more ambitious project, befitting the band’s complex style and legacy. With roots deep in the mult…
The Road: Volumes 6-10
Volume 2 of the definitive collection of unreleased recordings, unrecorded compositions, one-off events, radio and concert recordings. These four CDs and one DVD cover the period from 1976 to 1978 and include the legendary Stockholm and Bremen radio concerts, many otherwise unrecorded late compositions, and the only known video ever made of the band (a complete 75 minute concert from 1976). With a substantial 60-page book of information, unpublished photographs, documents, recollections and subs…
40th ANNIVERSARY BOX SET - VOL 3
Finally arrived back, this is the 40th Anniversary Box Set, Volume 3featuring The complete re-mastered Henry Cow studio recordings in the third matching box: Legend, Unrest, Desperate Straights, In Praise of Learning and Western Culture. Formed in 1968 and disbanded in 1978, HENRY COW's influences included rock, blues, classical, opera, jazz and of course, the avant-garde. Their compositions are complex, challenging and extremely original, but they are also dedicated improvisors who would som…