Friday 7 June 2019

Michael Bass and His Moderately-sized Orchestra's Painting by Numbers, 1979










What a gorgeous cover, drawing (so to speak) on Bosch / Breughel.  (Note the credit to Neil Dougherty, clearly wrongly linked to an individual of the same name in the database, and note from the back that the title track is dedicated to him.)

This album complements the Feigenbaum and Scott from Random Radar Records, but is nowhere near as good, sounding very much like RIO out-takes from an Art Bears instrumental session with some musical silliness (obviously, the malign Zappa influence) that detracts.  It is fully composed with chamber instruments and lacks the addition of the emotional/dramatic rock element with acoustic and electric guitars, keys, etc. that was at times so breathtakingly beautiful on F and S.

The last track, Blutgeld:





Michael Bass' earlier album called Parchesi Pie (1978) I found to be basically unlistenable, mixing together zappaesque verbal silliness with musical silliness.  You can listen to that one too.


3 comments:

  1. both

    https://www22.zippyshare.com/v/FzEzukOy/file.html

    79
    https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/4b2aq9

    78
    https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/wvzg0z



    PS I reupped cathedral's rudy perrone from long ago

    https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2014/04/rudy-perrone-oceans-of-art-cathedral.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. For whatever reason, I seem drawn to music deemed ‘unlistenable.’ Somehow I figure out a way. In any case, thanks for these. I haven't thought about Michael Bass for years, since back in the day when he was in The Muffins' orbit

    ReplyDelete
  3. it's intellectually challenging...

    ReplyDelete