the drum

Sundays are excellent for heading way off the beaten path, musically speaking or otherwise. Thus I decided to finally give the two Slapp Happy albums I own (more gems from my folks collection) a listen. I had no idea that Slapp Happy was a Dagmar Krause, Peter Blegvad project, but of course discovered this when investigating the covers and registered the Henry Cow collaboration on one of them. It's also well known that Faust were their backing band on the first two albums. It sets a particular tone when you know you're about to listen to the artful end of the music spectrum, a tone that's not always useful, if you know what I mean. Anyway to cut a long story short, 'The Drum' from their 1974 eponymous album for Virgin is sublime, twisted, psychedelic and at once dominated by the 'love em' or 'loathe em' distinctive vocals of Dagmar (later of Art Bears amongst other projects). It's oversubscribed with musical fascinations; Eastern sounds, Country, Folk, Roots, all in the one track and is a paean to the primal beat of the drum. Dagmar's lyrics are off the page, a portrait of the artist high on acid perhaps (?). It's definitely not Disco, it's 70's Avante Garde Pop for fans of Faust and the like. I recorded the track slowed down a little which really emphasised the underlying hypnotic and somewhat beard'ish groove of the track... Like i said way off the beaten path...

Slapp Happy - The Drum (slightly altered)