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I must admit that after the splendid first track and my wondering of where did it go, I lose my interest and attention till the end of this track. It's a calm, pastoral, classically beautiful music with a guitar, flute and organ interplay. The second song Amygdala is a change of pace. It seems like Nirvana for Mice is still going on somewhere else. And then it teases with an intriguing shift only to not go there, but instead lead into the second song. This builds to an incredibly energetic climax. The sounds are bouncing off each other or uniting, sometimes joyfully, but often with underlying tension towards collapsing. A solemn and grandiose opening turns into the two saxophones improvisational duel accompanied by bass and drums interplay that gives it background texture. Great example for this is the opening track, perhaps the jazziest song on the album, Nirvana for Mice. What lies beneath are rich and dense textures of different sounds interplay. What especially caught my attention are the masterful off-kilter compositions, always unpredictable even when they are seemingly straightforward. This first album is supposed to be their most accessible, and since it's the only one I listened, it makes me wanna hear more. I've learned that album's name has two versions Leg End and Legend, like a kind of wordplay, but that Leg End is probably the original title, and it fits with the cover art. This album club was a good opportunity for it. I've heard it maybe once or twice before, but never gave it a closer listen. I've never expected to like this album as much as I did. Some moments are little too po-faced - "Amygdala" and the filler-ish "Tenth Chaffinch" - but you've got to take it all in the spirit of musical adventurishness that pervaded the era.by.HorseMouth. In a sense the early Henry Cow were basically a po-faced British version of Zappa and The Mothers. Of course, Henry Cow don't have all the MOO-AH and HANDS UP!!! and AIIIII!!! of your typical Mothers improv but there are some obvious similarities. but calling it a 'tune' doesn't really do it justice! The preceding "Teenbeat Introduction" sounds like one of The Mothers' conducted improvisations, with all the duelling woodwinds and sax noise. The first fifty seconds sounds like you've joined the band in ascending to heaven! And good god, ain't it funky when Fred whips his violin out! This is one of my favourite Prog tunes ever. "Teenbeat" has to be one of the most beautiful recordings in existance. Henry Cow were too disciplined for mindless cacophony. My description makes the composition sound extreme, even harsh, but in spite of it's intensity it's actually rather soft and intricate. There's just so much going on it's hard to get your head around it! Geoff Leigh's sax blowage swirls around in a sea of free-form drum blasts, guitar noodling and electronic squiggles before the whole thing breaks down. "Nirvana For Mice" is almost mind-blowing in it's complexity. Shortly after, they united with Dagmar Krause and the rest of Slapp Happy to further their unconventional Mike DeGagne. In 1974, Henry Cow released Unrest, which contains the same vigor and spontaneity as Leg End, only it didn't receive the same amount of attention. "Nine Funerals of the Citizen King" is one of the easiest pieces to listen to, while the short but amiable "Bellycan" is an excerpt removed from the group's work with the Greasy Truckers, performed a year earlier. Chris Cutler lends his uncommitted, self-governing brand of drumming to the album to help culminate the frenzy, and Leigh's tenor flute does add some extraordinary musical fabric to each of the album's ten cuts. The techniques are difficult to follow, but the stewing that emerges between the piano, guitar, flute, and percussion is so animated and colorful, it actually sounds pleasant as a whole. Through tracks like "Amygdala," "Teenbeat," and "The Tenth Chaffinch," it's simply creativity run amok, instilling the free-spiritedness of the late '60s into this, a 1974 album. Here, on the band's debut, both Fred Frith and woodwind man Geoff Leigh hold nothing back, creating eclectic, avant garde-styled jazz movements without any sense of direction, or so it may seem at first, but paying close attention to Henry Cow's musical wallowing results in some first-rate instrumental fusion, albeit a little too abstract at times.
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Political astuteness aside, Henry Cow's Leg End is simply a busy musical trip, comprised of snaking rhythms, unorthodox time signatures, and incongruous waves of multiple instruments that actually culminate in some appealing yet complex progressive rock.