If you thought
Henry Cow was a pretty political band to start with, you may be even more taken aback by the
Art Bears, which was put together following
Henry Cow's demise by former Cows
Chris Cutler (percussion),
Fred Frith (guitar, violin), and
Dagmar Krause (voice). On
The World As It Is Today and its predecessor,
Winter Songs, the
Art Bears move away from the long-form art rock of
Henry Cow and get much, much more politically explicit: song titles like
"The Song of the Dignity of Labour Under Capital" and
"The Song of Investment Capital Overseas" almost sound like Monty Python gags today, but if any humor was intended it was clearly meant to be mordant. Frankly, the lyrics are so overwrought and portentous that it's hard to take them seriously. But the music is something else again.
Cutler and
Frith are natural collaborators;
Cutler's drumming always rides a very fine line between the scattershot and the funky, while
Frith bounces his horror-show guitar noise and carnival piano off of
Cutler's grooves with manic abandon and fearsome inventiveness. And
Krause's singing is just as inventive; she whoops, croons and screams her way through the density of
Cutler's lyrics without a hesitation or misstep. Easy listening it isn't, but it's sure worth hearing.
Frith fans, in particular, should consider this album a must-own. ~ Rick Anderson
