HENRY COW Unrest SCARCE ORIG UK 1974 VERY GOOD+ AVANT-PROG LP, IMPRESSIVE SOUND.

	£		28
	$		36

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Artist or Band: HENRY COW

Album Title: Unrest

Producer(s): Henry Cow

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Bittern Storm over Ulm; Half Asleep/Half Awake; Ruins.

Side 2: Solemn Music; Linguaphonie; Upon Entering the Hotel Adlon; Arcades; Deluge.

Label/Format: Virgin – original black and white ‘Twin Virgins’ format with matt, smooth surfaces.

Label Conditions: Both clean still fresh with several spindle marks which are more visible under light.

Catalogue Number: V 2011

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Warps: Assume all records I offer have no warping of any significance and all tracking is easy and effortless and should play on all turntables and even ‘budget’ decks.

Weight of this Record: 114 grams.

Country of Manufacture: England.

Rarity: Scarce, this band sold only modest number of albums.

Original Year of Release: 1974

Matrix Nos: V 2011 A-1U / V 2011 B-1U

Mothers / Stampers: 1 G / 1 G [ultimate first mother and stamper codes, the most prized by specialist collectors. These are machine punched]

Run-Out Groove Etchings: GARETH (on side one)

Musicians: Tim Hodgkinson – organ, piano, alto saxophone, clarinet; Fred Frith – stereo guitar, violin, xylophone, piano; John Greaves – bass guitar, piano, voice; Chris Cutler – drums; Lindsay Cooper – bassoon, oboe, recorder, voice.

Brief Info: An early album on the still relatively new Richard Branson Virgin record label. When founded in 1972, Virgin almost specialised in new and more avant garde ‘progressive’ acts such as Mike Oldfield and experimental European bands such as Faust, Tangerine Dream and Gong. It probably amazed Branson himself that ‘Tubular Bells’ sold in such monumental numbers and ‘Phaedra’ even broke Tangerine Dream into the UK album charts. This new label opened many music lovers ears to more adventurous and interesting bands of the time. Henry Cow, an English band from Cambridgeshire were signed in May 1973 and quickly recorded an impressive debut album – it was promoted with a tour supported by the Krautrockers Faust. Neither band ever sold-out to being commercial, and Henry Cow’s music, in even progressive terms, has never been anything like mainstream. They developed their own style of jazzy ‘art rock’ that was never orthodox but always compelling, their albums only bought by the curious and more adventurous music fans. ‘Unrest’ is the band’s second album from 1974, like the first, it sold in minimal numbers – it also featured the second (of three) ‘paint socks’ covers. Predominately instrumental and including the immense improvised guitar talents of Fred Frith, this at times reminds me of Zappa’s Mothers of Invention circa 1968 to 1970 – that is probably why I found this very much to my own personal taste. Some of the intruments are recorded at double and half speed to add to the strangeness of their sound. The band now recruited female woodwind player Lindsay Cooper, formerly of Comus. This a fine original, the record does have a relative few non-feelable surface marks, but plays well throughout with little unwanted on what is always a challenging recording due to some quiet passages.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT(–): a gatefold format with laminated outer faces. The inside is matt and smooth. Printed and made in England by the E. J. Day Group, includes the plain white inner sleeve.

Lamination – Front & Back: A highly respectable, and still attractive cover with some mainly light and quite fine laminate creasing mainly near the edge areas. Minimal traces of lifting and retaining decent shine. Just enough to politely remind of its quite significant age.

Cover Inner Gatefold: Just a gentle hint of set-off where black ink rests upon white that is rarely avoided on such covers, then little else really of note to fault.

Top & Bottom Edges: All four quite straight with smooth intact laminate and barely worn.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Only light patchy thickening on the back opening edges, the closed front still neat and crisp.

Spine and Text: Solid, mainly straight with minimal compression. One of those prone to forming a recess from opening due to the high inside hinge fold. But here the text has not sunk and is still fully present and easy to read. A little very patchy laminate cracking here-and-there with any peeling small and light. Overall, one of the best spines I have seen on this cover which often fairs badly over time.

Corners: Four very fine corners with any tip rubs tiny and few, impressive dink-free shape retained also.

Cover Summary: A very respectable example of this deceptively fragile 1970’s cover, one that could prove difficult to find much better. This one should please many collectors.

The Inner Sleeve: EXCELLENT(–): A plain white unlined inner with a crease on the back. Intact and only gently aged with no writing. It has the Patent No. 1,125,555.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: VERY GOOD(+): a fine visual copy that is clean with a small few visible surface marks that cannot be felt and do not sound. Under bright light, any other fine surface marks are very gentle and faint. This challenging record does play very nicely and is cleanly pressed. Visually a splendid record that should please many collectors.

Album Played For Grading: Yes. [I play ALL records I offer before submitting to Ebay, also the record is played in its entirety unless clearly stated otherwise.

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This scarce progressive rock album played above its fine visual grading. Offering strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear – sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound. Any surface sounds are minimal indeed and this is a very clean pressing with no tracking issues*. Due to some quiet passages, the odd sporadic contact sound is near impossible to avoid totally, but generally this challenging album plays well and will not prove easy to find a much clean audio copy for a genuine first pressing. Little of any note spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this record. It could prove very difficult to find better and can be recommended.

* As played on my Pro-Ject Turntable with Ortofon Blue Cartridge tracking at 2 grams, Naim SuperNait 2 Amp and Spendor A7 speakers.