Search - Fred Frith :: Gravity

Music to lift the heaviest of hearts

Michael W. Draine | Acton, MA United States | 01/08/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"1980's GRAVITY represented guitarist Fred Frith's first major break from the extremes of non-jazz improvisation and the intensely composed sound he pioneered with the avant-rock band Henry Cow. The liner notes articulate Frith's intention to explore dance music from around the globe, to celebrate "the victory over gravity, over all that weighs down or oppressive." The delightfully eccentric time signatures drawn from Mediterranean, Balkan, and Scandinavia folk music prove remarkably consistent with Frith's own innovative style. Sweden's Zamla Mammas Manna support Frith on the first half of the disc, imparting these tracks with crack musicianship and Zamla's deliriously cheerful air. Maryland's Muffins lend a more of hard-hitting sound on the second half, climaxing in the crunching cover of Martha and the Vandellas "Dancing in the Street." Frith's spirited (if technically limited) violin is an appropriate vehicle for the skewed folk melodies that run through the disc, most successfully in a duet with Lars Hollmer's buoyant accordion on "Hands of the Juggler." GRAVITY remains Frith's most accessible album, though the "Twilight Zone Theme"-on-DMT "What a Dilemma" presages Frith's tortured riffing for Massacre. Swiss producer Etienne Conod (Univers Zero, Art Zoyd, Art Bears) graced the recording with his customary crystalline sound. GRAVITY remains the most concentrated dose of Frith's musical charisma, energy, and creativity. This ReR/Fred Records reissue strips away the supplementary tracks included on a previous CD edition, but those pieces have received release elsewhere."