Consumer Guide Album

Henry Cow: The Henry Cow Legend [Virgin, 1973]
Composed to encourage improvisation, influenced by jazz yet identifying with Europe, and categorizable only as rock (although calling one cut "Teenbeat" is stretching things), the music of these Cambridge progressives is more flexible than King Crimson's and more stringently conceived than Soft Machine's. As is usual in this style, not everything works. As is also usual, the guitar (Fred Frith) carries more clout than the saxophone (Geoff Leigh). As is not usual, you can listen to what few lyrics there are without getting sick. B