Avant popsters Slapp Happy get the two-fer treatment from Virgin on this 1999 CD. The first 11 tracks were originally released in 1974 as the group's eponymously titled Virgin label debut (and are not the same versions of the tunes recorded earlier with Faust, first intended for release by Polydor, and ultimately issued by Recommended Records -- and by Cuneiform with bonus tracks -- under the title Acnalbasac Noom). The group's songwriting had improved since 1972's {^Sort of...Slapp...   [ read more ]

CD $12.33

The eponymously titled debut for Virgin from avant popsters Slapp Happy includes many of the same songs -- but not the same versions -- of tunes recorded in 1973 with Faust, first intended for release by Polydor, and ultimately issued by Recommended Records (and later by Cuneiform with bonus tracks) under the title Acnalbasac Noom. The group's songwriting had improved since 1972's Sort of...Slapp Happy, and Dagmar Krause's German chanteuse-influenced vocals were presented in catc...   [ read more ]

CD $50.33

Slapp Happy's debut unveiled a band that was not so much an avant-rock group as one that seemed primarily interested in toying with rock conventions, as if such subversion was more inherently worthwhile than playing it straight. That meant that at its least impressive, it didn't qualify as either good avant-rock or good conventional rock, instead lumbering along with self-consciously jagged tunes. It sounds best when Dagmar Krause's vocals come to the forefront, as on "Heading for Kyoto" and the d...   [ read more ]

CD $47.48