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38-543: Slapp Happy was a German/English avant-pop group, formed in Germany in 1972. Their lineup consisted of Anthony Moore (keyboards), Peter Blegvad (guitar) and Dagmar Krause (vocals). The band members moved to England in 1974 where they merged with Henry Cow , but the merger ended soon afterwards and Slapp Happy split up. Slapp Happy's sound was characterised by Dagmar Krause's unique vocal style. From 1982 there have been brief reunions to create an opera called Camera , record

76-557: A Slapp Happy single, "Everybody's Slimmin' (Even Men and Women)" on their own private label, Half-Cat Records. Here Krause sings rap-style to a rhythm box sound. They also performed live (for the first time ever) during the "Dial M For Music" festival, held at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts on 10 September 1982. The three collaborated again in 1991 on a specially commissioned television opera "Camera", produced by After Image for Channel 4 , based on an original idea by Krause, with words by Blegvad and music by Moore. Krause played

114-455: A collection of dreamy pop vignettes, adorned with dubby echoes and tape-warped sonic tendrils" which would be largely ignored at the time. Other early avant-pop productions included the Beatles 's 1966 song " Tomorrow Never Knows ", which incorporated techniques from musique concrète , avant-garde composition, Indian music , and electro-acoustic sound manipulation into a 3-minute pop format, and

152-450: A joke into something unexpected. American music academic Benjamin Piekut said "Krause's voice possessed a levity and grace that was shot through with world-weary Lenyiana ." Now a trio, Slapp Happy presented Polydor with "Just a Conversation", and were surprised when the label released it as a single in 1972, backed by "Jumping Jonah", another pop ditty they had recorded. Polydor also gave them

190-425: A never-released second album. No recording by this lineup would see the light of day for another 40 years. The group disbanded for a time, but Wootton, Andy Hellaby and Bobbie Watson reformed the band with new members for their second album, To Keep from Crying , in 1974. A complete box set was released in 2005; this features both studio albums, their only single, "Diana", and a previously unreleased track called "All

228-521: A raw and unsophisticated feel about it, whereas Slapp Happy tended to be more sentimental with more complex arrangements, including a string orchestra. In June 1974, there were plans for a joint appearance by Slapp Happy and Virgin label mates Henry Cow and Wyatt at a free concert in Hyde Park in London, but this was cancelled at the last minute. However, on 25 June Slapp Happy recorded a Top Gear session for

266-586: A record deal. Moore and Blegvad continued writing "naive rock", as Blegvad described it, and when they had enough songs, the trio returned to Wümme in May 1972 to record Sort Of , their debut album. Once again, Faust were their backing band. The LP was released later in 1972, but did not sell well, primarily because Slapp Happy refused to perform live. In late 1972 Slapp Happy began recording their second album, Casablanca Moon with Faust. The songs here were more sophisticated and artful than those on Sort Of . Moore's music

304-528: A single that was "radio friendly", but upon hearing the songs they rejected them, stating that they felt they were better suited for an album. This caused Blegvad and Moore to rethink their songwriting strategy, and they began producing more serious and challenging music. Moore said they had written material "which had to be executed using a musical vocabulary greater than Peter or I could handle." This led to Slapp Happy asking Henry Cow to be their backing band on their second album for Virgin. After discussions between

342-472: A vocalist. This effectively meant the end of Slapp Happy as a band. They did, however, record one more single, "Johnny's Dead", without Krause, which was released in July 1975. It was credited to "Slapp Happy featuring Anthony Moore", and was the beginning of Moore's solo career, in which he spelt his name "More". Moore and Blegvad then both embarked on separate solo careers. In 1982 the trio reunited briefly to record

380-542: Is also a member of free-improvising trio Red Square. Colin Pearson went on to produce hits for other artists, including " Forever Young" for Alphaville . Seagroatt and singer Bobbie Watson married in 2003. In 1998, Opeth singer and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt used part of a sentence from "Drip Drip" for the title of the album My Arms, Your Hearse . The full line was "As I carry you to your grave, my arms your hearse". The song "Moonlapse Vertigo" from Still Life contains

418-414: Is largely acoustic art rock (also described as acoustic metal and acid folk) that blends elements of Eastern percussion, early folk and animal-like vocals. The lyrics involve violence, murder, mental disorder and the mystical. Tiny Mix Tapes rated First Utterance five stars out of five. After the album, woodwind player Rob Young was replaced by Lindsay Cooper , and the new lineup developed material for

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456-471: Is music that "re-sequences" the elements of song structure "so that (a) none of the charm of the tune is lost, but (b) this very accessibility leads one to bump into weirder elements welded into the design." The Tribeca New Music Festival defines "avant-pop" as "music that draws its energy from both popular music and classical forms." The term has elsewhere been used by literary critic Larry McCaffery to describe "the most radical, subversive literary talents of

494-574: The BBC , enlisting the help of former and current Cow members Geoff Leigh , Fred Frith and Lindsay Cooper , plus Wyatt, who contributed guest vocals and percussion to a version of Blegvad's "A Little Something" from Casablanca Moon . Credited as "Slapp Happy & Friends", this was later released in 1994 on Wyatt's compilation album, Flotsam Jetsam . Slapp Happy returned to the studio in May 1974 to record two new compositions with session musicians, "Europa" and " War (Is Energy Enslaved) ". Virgin had requested

532-626: The 10th Rock in Opposition festival in Carmaux , France. They made a final appearance in November 2017 in Brussels, Belgium. Slapp Happy's music was eccentric pop with an " avant-garde " twist to it. It drew on a variety of musical idioms, including waltzes , bossa novas , French chansons and tangos . The songs' lyrics were literate and playful while the mood varied from "dreamy" to sinister. However, it

570-726: The 1968 album An Electric Storm , recorded by the electronic music group White Noise (featuring members from the U.K.’s BBC Radiophonic Workshop ), is an "undisputed masterpiece of early avant-pop". In the 1970s, progressive rock and post-punk music would see new avant-pop fusions, including the work of Pink Floyd , Genesis , Henry Cow , This Heat , and the Pop Group . More contemporary avant-pop artists have included David Sylvian , Scott Walker , and Björk , whose vocal experimentation and innovative modes of expression have seen them move beyond norms of commercial pop music. Others who have been credited as avant-pop's pioneers include

608-713: The Colours of Darkness". The liner notes feature an exclusive interview with some members of the band. They reformed for the Mellotronen Festival in Sweden in March 2008. They have continued to perform occasional gigs, including some new material. On 13 June 2009, Comus performed for the first time in the UK in 37 years, at the Equinox Festival at Conway Hall . A reunion album, Out of

646-700: The Coma , was released in June 2012. It contains three new tracks: "Out of the Coma", "The Sacrifice" (both written by Wootton) and "The Return" (written by Goring), plus a 1972 live recording of unfinished material from their abandoned follow-up to First Utterance , "The Malgaard Suite". Sputnik Music rated Out of the Coma 3.5 out of 5. Louder Sound rated it four stars out of five. The members were active outside Comus. Wootton also appears on some recordings by Slapp Happy . Cooper went on to join Henry Cow . Reed player Jon Seagroatt

684-489: The Velvet Underground 's integration of La Monte Young 's minimalist and drone music ideas, beat poetry , and 1960s pop art. In late 1960s Germany, an experimental avant-pop scene dubbed " krautrock " saw influential artists such as Kraftwerk , Can , and Tangerine Dream draw inspiration from minimalism, German academic music , and Anglo-American pop-rock . According to The Quietus ' David McNamee,

722-535: The Velvet Underground's Lou Reed , singer Kate Bush , performance artist Laurie Anderson , art pop musician Spookey Ruben , and Black Dice 's Eric Copeland . As of 2017, contemporary artists working in avant-pop areas include Julia Holter , Holly Herndon and Oneohtrix Point Never . In 1979, Andrew Stiller of The Buffalo News wrote of two separate strands; "avant-garde pop", he theorised, comprised new wave music and acts like Brian Eno , Devo and Talking Heads , whereas "pop avant-garde", he deemed,

760-726: The album Ça Va in 1998, and perform shows around the world. Slapp Happy was formed in 1972 in Hamburg , Germany by British experimental composer Anthony Moore . Moore had recorded two avant-garde/experimental solo LPs at Faust 's studio in Wümme, Bremen , Germany for Polydor Records . When he presented them with a third album, they rejected it, stating that they wanted something more commercial. Moore obliged and asked his American friend, Peter Blegvad to come to Hamburg and help him write some pop songs. Blegvad recalls responding, "Pop songs. Three-chord stuff. How hard can that be ...?" For them it

798-933: The album. In early 1973, Slapp Happy left Germany for England. Henry Cow , who had recently signed a record deal with the then emerging Virgin Records , heard a cassette tape of the trio's rejected second album, and were impressed and recommended that Virgin sign them. The record label, however, was concerned about how receptive English audiences would be to Krause's German accent. But after several other musicians and critics advocated them, including Robert Wyatt and Ian MacDonald in New Musical Express , Virgin added Slapp Happy to their roster later in 1973. Soon after signing, Slapp Happy went to Virgin's Manor Studios in Oxfordshire in early 1974 to re-record Casablanca Moon . Blegvad said Virgin felt that their unreleased second album

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836-481: The lead character "Melusina" and the opera was broadcast two years later on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. The soundtrack Camera was released on CD in 2000, although under the names "Dagmar Krause, Anthony Moore and Peter Blegvad" and not "Slapp Happy". In 1997, Slapp Happy reunited again to record a new studio album Ça Va on Richard Branson 's new V2 label. It was Slapp Happy's first album since 1975 and

874-551: The lyric "Across the leafy pathway," which was taken from Comus' "Diana." Another nod to Comus was given on the 2005 Opeth album Ghost Reveries . The second track, "The Baying of the Hounds", was derived from a line in the song "Diana" which reads, "And she knows by the sound of the baying, by the baying of the hounds". English experimental band Current 93 covered the song "Diana" from First Utterance on their studio album Horsey . Musically, this version differs considerably from

912-580: The meanings those styles reference, and the social norms they support or imply." Music writer Sean Albiez describes "avant-pop" as identifying idiosyncratic artists working in "a liminal space between contemporary classical music and the many popular music genres that developed in the second half of the twentieth century." He noted avant-pop's basis in experimentalism, as well its postmodern and non-hierarchical incorporation of varied genres such as pop, electronica , rock , classical , and jazz . Paul Grimstad of The Brooklyn Rail writes that avant-pop

950-495: The music picked up from where it had left off with literate and quirky pop songs. A departure from the past, however, was that they made the music themselves, playing all the instruments and using looped samples to produce a layered sound on many of the tracks. Slapp Happy was popular in Japan and toured there in 2000, playing on stage without any backing musicians. A CD, Live in Japan ,

988-421: The postmodern new wave." In the 1960s, as popular music began to gain cultural importance and question its status as commercial entertainment, musicians began to look to the post-war avant-garde for inspiration. In 1959, music producer Joe Meek recorded I Hear a New World (1960), which Tiny Mix Tapes ' Jonathan Patrick calls a "seminal moment in both electronic music and avant-pop history [...]

1026-592: The solo improvisations of Terry Riley . Comus (band) Comus are a British progressive folk band who had a brief career in the early 1970s. Their first album, First Utterance , has garnered them a cult following that persists to today. They reunited in 2009, and have played several festivals and released a new album called Out of the Coma . Comus was formed in 1969 by art students Roger Wootton and Glenn Goring, who developed their musical style performing in folk clubs in and around Bromley in Kent. The band

1064-420: The songs aren't bad, but it's really a missed opportunity. You made a conventional pop record and you could have done something more." It was not until 1980 that Recommended Records released the original Casablanca Moon (with Faust) as Acnalbasac Noom (the words of the original title written backwards). Comparison of the two releases revealed two very different musical arrangements . Acnalbasac Noom had

1102-601: The studio in early 1975 to record Henry Cow's In Praise of Learning . The only real contribution from Slapp Happy (besides Dagmar's singing) was the Moore/Blegvad song "War", which blended in well with the album's political aggression. But differences in approach between the two groups had come to a head in April 1975 and Moore and Blegvad quit, suggesting that Henry Cow's music was too serious (and political) for their liking. Krause, however, elected to remain with Henry Cow, who needed

1140-498: The two bands, they collaborated in November 1974 and recorded Desperate Straights . "Europa" and "War" were re-recorded, and the album was later released under the name "Slapp Happy/Henry Cow". The success of this collaboration surprised everyone, considering how dissimilar the two bands were. The music often had a Berlin Cabaret feel about it with a taste of avant-garde jazz . Slapp Happy and Henry Cow decided to merge and returned to

1178-474: Was Dagmar Krause 's unusual and eerie high-pitched voice that was the group's most arresting feature. Her German -inflected vocals ranged from a sweet melodious croon to the "love-it-or-hate-it" Armageddon style typified on In Praise of Learning . Note: Dagmar Krause was credited as "Daggi" on Slapp Happy's first album, Sort Of (1972). On the next three albums, Slapp Happy (1974), Desperate Straights (1975) and In Praise of Learning (1975), she

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1216-486: Was "a good demo, but too crude for radio, so we re-recorded the same songs with swisher production". Session musicians were used, under the direction of violinist Graham Preskett , with new arrangements of the songs by Roger Wootton of Comus . Virgin released the album as Slapp Happy in May 1974. The new recording attracted the attention of the press, particularly after Wyatt endorsed it. But Henry Cow were not so complimentary. Blegvad remembers them saying, "Well, it's OK,

1254-463: Was "a popularization of the indeterminacy cum electronics so widespread among classical composers a decade ago". He counted recent works by Vangelis , Heldon and Bruce Ditmas as examples of the latter, and wrote that it originated in the 1960s counterculture 's "notions of universal amateurism" with pieces like the Doors ' " Horse Latitudes " (1967), the Beatles' " Revolution 9 " (1968) and, later,

1292-565: Was a joke. They said, "we'll take the piss out of pop." Calling themselves Slapp Happy, Moore and Blegvad wrote the song "Just a Conversation" in 20 minutes. They recorded it in Faust's studio with Faust's rhythm section backing them. But when the pair found their singing was not working, they asked Moore's girlfriend (and future wife), Dagmar Krause to sing. She had sung previously on stage and in several groups, but wanted to stop. Reluctantly, however, she agreed to sing, and transformed Slapp Happy from

1330-516: Was credited as "Dagmar". From Acnalbasac Noom (1980) onwards Krause was credited with her full name. The year below indicates the release date (not the recording date). Avant-garde pop "Avant-pop" has been used to label music which balances experimental or avant-garde approaches with stylistic elements from popular music, and which probes mainstream conventions of structure or form. Writer Tejumola Olaniyan describes "avant-pop music" as transgressing "the boundaries of established styles,

1368-486: Was harmonically richer, and Blegvad's lyrics more serious and poetic. Blegvad said, "We were snobs about pop music ... Anthony was more interested in making modern classical music." But they acknowledged that their attempts at commercial music were naïve and called their approach "the Douanier Rousseau sound", after the self-taught French artist. But Polydor did not like the direction Slapp Happy were taking and rejected

1406-595: Was named after Comus (a masque by John Milton ), and also after the name of the Greek god Comus . The band grew from an early folk duo to a six-piece ensemble; in that later form, David Bowie came to appreciate them. They appeared regularly at his Arts Lab project in Beckenham , Kent. He also invited them to be his support act in a 1969 concert at London's Purcell Rooms. Their first album, First Utterance , with cover art by Wootton and Goring, appeared in 1971. The music

1444-559: Was released in 2001 in Japan only. Krause, Moore and Blegvad reformed Slapp Happy again in November 2016 to perform with Faust at the Week-End festival in Cologne , Germany. The two groups also played together on 10–11 February 2017 at Cafe Oto in London. On 24 February 2017 Slapp Happy, without Faust, performed at Mt. Rainier Hall, Shibuya in Tokyo. In September 2017, Slapp Happy and Faust played at

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