HR150 - Gorgonzola Legs - Short Stories - C60 — 1989
SIDE A:
The Performance - 88 Kumuro - 87 Mr. Longmower - 88 Nakiowa - 87 The Situation Under Water - 88 So Near - 86 D.D. Unsan! - 88 |
SIDE B:
Fat - 88 Lwenteo - 86 Faces of Pain - 86 Masaki - 87 Flatlands - 86 Screamin' Jay Hawkins - 86 |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Gorgonzola Legs is headed up by Dutch musician/hometaper Hessel Veldman. The 13 ‘stories’ on this C60 were recorded between 1986-88, with various musicians on guitar, synthesizer, vocals, percussion, tuba, saxophone, and clarinet.
Fans of avant-garde theater with experimental soundtrack music will find much to enjoy here. The tracks are characterized by eerily passionate poetic narratives backed by freeform chamber/punk/goth/jazz music. Set opener ‘The Performance’ is representative, with intense instrumentation that somewhat reminded me of Univers Zero in their chamber ensemble dominated early days. Very intense, even in its quieter moments.
Other highlights include ‘Kumuro’ which is similar though the vocals are far freakier, as if the narrator were an acid dosed Kabuki performer turned Industrial music anarchist. ‘Mr. Longmower’ features beatnik poetry and music that recalls Henry Cow at their most abstract. ‘The Situation Under Water’ has a ghostly aura, with an interesting blend of playful orchestra warmup and screechy noodling.
The vocals don’t pop in until a few minutes into ‘So Near’, the opening part being an interesting noise, scrape, and clatter percussion workout with a staggered rhythmic pulse. But in its last minutes it erupts into an Industrial/symphonic ritual exorcism, with a disturbing blend of demonic vocals and orchestral bang clang music. One of my favorites of the set. And ‘Fat’ starts off like an Industrial marching band with angst guitar and a punk-poet bandleader, before morphing into an angular noise-punk band. Beautiful cacophony and another standout of the set.
Gorgonzola Legs is headed up by Dutch musician/hometaper Hessel Veldman. The 13 ‘stories’ on this C60 were recorded between 1986-88, with various musicians on guitar, synthesizer, vocals, percussion, tuba, saxophone, and clarinet.
Fans of avant-garde theater with experimental soundtrack music will find much to enjoy here. The tracks are characterized by eerily passionate poetic narratives backed by freeform chamber/punk/goth/jazz music. Set opener ‘The Performance’ is representative, with intense instrumentation that somewhat reminded me of Univers Zero in their chamber ensemble dominated early days. Very intense, even in its quieter moments.
Other highlights include ‘Kumuro’ which is similar though the vocals are far freakier, as if the narrator were an acid dosed Kabuki performer turned Industrial music anarchist. ‘Mr. Longmower’ features beatnik poetry and music that recalls Henry Cow at their most abstract. ‘The Situation Under Water’ has a ghostly aura, with an interesting blend of playful orchestra warmup and screechy noodling.
The vocals don’t pop in until a few minutes into ‘So Near’, the opening part being an interesting noise, scrape, and clatter percussion workout with a staggered rhythmic pulse. But in its last minutes it erupts into an Industrial/symphonic ritual exorcism, with a disturbing blend of demonic vocals and orchestral bang clang music. One of my favorites of the set. And ‘Fat’ starts off like an Industrial marching band with angst guitar and a punk-poet bandleader, before morphing into an angular noise-punk band. Beautiful cacophony and another standout of the set.