Spoils Of War - Second Album (1968)




Przedstawiam drugą płytę amerykańskiej grupy Spoils Of War, na którą składają się niepublikowane nagrania i utwory koncertowe. Tym, którzy znają zespół nie trzeba rekomendować tej pozycji, natomiast wszystkich, którzy nie znają - zapraszam do zapoznania się z tą - moim zdaniem - jedną z najciekawszych grup amerykańskich końca lat 60-tych. Muzyka jaką tworzyli, a były to gównie pomysły bandleadera Jima Cuomo, to bardzo interesujące eksperymenty dźwiękowe w psychedelicznej otoczce. Stylistycznie grupa nawiązywała do innej grupy - The United States of America. Podobieństwa są uderzające.

Jim Cuomo - organ, clarinet, sax, piano, vocals, recorder
Frank Garvey - drums
Sandy Spencer - vocal, cello
Elliott Delman - guitar

The follow up album of unreleased material studio and live released before as an Double LP including 8-page booklet. The very first time I've listen to The Spoils Of War was a few years back when the US collector Rick Haney send me an tape of the band's music he has found. Professor Brun, a former musical teacher of Jim Cuomo, who is the creative head behind SOW, gave 2 real-to-real tapes to Haney in hope to find the composer and release the music. But he had no luck finding Jim Cuomo in USA. On one hand I was so impressed by the music of SOW on the other hand it was quiet irritating.

The most inspiring but strange music I can remember from the 60's was the early Mothers Of Invention. The intellectual background of the music, the well-crafted and well-performed music of Zappa combined with underground rock and the political statement stayed important to me for the past 30 years. Later on I explored the music from early Soft Machine and in the 70's Slap Happy, Henry Cow and Faust. For open minded listener this was a must.

But the SOW worked in the same direction, experimenting with electronic sounds, composing and performing beautiful harmonies and songs, but all this in 1967/68. How in hell could the make music like this that early? Well, it must have been the inspiring influence of Jim Cuomo's musical teacher John Cage. A few years later Jim Cuomo was located in Paris, France. When Jim left USA for Paris he formed a new band which became Mormos.

For the CBS label they have recorded 3 albums and some singles and successfully released them. Some songs where old SOW tracks played now in an acoustic way with Mormos. So this was the link in finding Jim. After the first LP of SOW came out on Shadoks Jim supplied a lot of other material which was in parts released on the first SOW CD. A great friendship started between Shadoks and Jim Cuomo. Several other projects where released and now we have his final one. The new SPOILS OF WAR II CD with unreleased studio and live tracks.

Just a few month ago Jim located all the other former members of SOW in USA and maybe one day there will be a great reunion concert, let's hope for the best. Even today the music of The Spoils Of War goes far beyond most other modern pop music and will be inspiring for many years form now (green-brain-krautrock.de)

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3 komentarze:

  1. The United States of America to moja zapomniana, ulubiona (wręcz kultowa grupa) z młodości. Ankh gdybyś dał radę zamieścić ich płytę, to byłbym ogromnie wdzięczny.
    Spoils of War właśnie sobie ściągnąłem i słucham pierwszy kawałek. Rzeczywiście bardzo podobne- eh młodość powraca :)

    stokrotne dzięki Ankh :)

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  2. Anonimowy27/1/09

    United States czesto bywa na blogspotach

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