Slapp Happy
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| Slapp Happy | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Hamburg, Germany |
| Genre(s) | Avant-progressive rock |
| Years active | 1972–1975 Reunions: 1997, 2000 |
| Label(s) | Polydor, Virgin, V2 Recommended, FMN |
| Associated acts | Henry Cow |
| Former members | |
| Peter Blegvad Dagmar Krause Anthony Moore |
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Slapp Happy was a German/English avant-garde pop group consisting of Anthony Moore (keyboards), Peter Blegvad (guitar) and Dagmar Krause (vocals). They formed in Germany in 1972, moved to England in 1974 where they merged with Henry Cow, but the merger ended soon afterwards and Slapp Happy split up. From 1982 there have been brief reunions to work on an opera, record a CD and tour Japan.
Slapp Happy's sound was characterised by Dagmar Krause's highly original and idiosyncratic vocal style making their music instantly likable by some and hated by others.
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[edit] History
[edit] Germany
Slapp Happy was formed in 1972 in Hamburg, Germany by British experimental composer Anthony Moore. Moore had recorded two avant-garde/experimental solo LPs for Polydor Germany, but when they rejected his third because it was not commercial enough, he proposed a pop project with his girlfriend, Dagmar Krause from Hamburg, and a visiting American friend, Peter Blegvad. At the time Dagmar couldn't sing because of voice problems, but when Moore and Blegvad claimed their singing was "terrible", Dagmar agreed to sing for the group.
With krautrock group Faust as their backing band, Slapp Happy recorded their debut album Sort Of for Polydor Germany in 1972. The songs were simple, primitive pop, a "naive rock" as Peter Blegvad put it, and with Dagmar Krause's pure and innocent sounding voice, Slapp Happy's trademark sound was established. Commercially, the LP did not go very far, primarily because Slapp Happy refused to perform live "like a real pop group".
In 1973 they returned to the studio (again with Faust as their backing band) to record their second album Casablanca Moon. After the commercial failure of Sort Of Polydor had demanded more pop-sounding material, and so Moore and Blegvad wrote "straight" pop songs with beautiful melodies and poetic lyrics, but Polydor was still not happy and refused to release it.
[edit] England
Slappy Happy then left Polydor Germany and moved to London where they signed a deal with the then emerging Virgin Records label, which was looking for experimental groups. Faust and Henry Cow had already signed up. At Virgin's Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, Slapp Happy re-recorded Casablanca Moon with the help of session musicians (under the direction of violinist Graham Preskett) and Virgin released it as Slapp Happy in 1974. The songs here were more sophisticated than those on Sort Of, lyrically and musically, and their eccentricity showed Slapp Happy's ambivalence towards pop music. Slapp Happy and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells were big cash earners for Virgin in 1974, and they helped fund the non-commercial Virgin releases at the time. Slapp Happy was later re-released as Casablanca Moon.
It wasn't until 1980 that Recommended Records released the original Casablanca Moon (with Faust) as Acnalbasac Noom (the words of the original title reversed). Comparison of the two releases revealed two very different musical arrangements. Acnalbasac Noom had a raw and unsophisticated feel about it (which appealed to many fans), whereas Casablanca Moon tended to be more sentimental and "dreamy" with more complex arrangements, including a string orchestra. The debate as to which is better still goes on.
On 25 June 1974 Slapp Happy, with Geoff Leigh, Fred Frith and Lindsay Cooper from Henry Cow, and Robert Wyatt recorded Blegvald's song, "A Little Something" from Casablanca Moon for the BBC's Top Gear radio show. Credited as "Slapp Happy & Friends", "A Little Something" was broadcast on 16 July 1974 and later released in 1994 on Wyatt's compilation album, Flotsam Jetsam.
In November 1974, Slapp Happy invited Henry Cow, a politically-oriented avant-garde rock group, to be their band on their next LP for Virgin and the two groups recorded Desperate Straights as "Slapp Happy/Henry Cow". The success of this collaboration surprised everyone, considering how dissimilar the two bands were, and they decided to merge. Desperate Straights was the perfect mixture of avant-garde music and nostalgic pop. The music often had a Berlin Cabaret feel about it with a taste of avant-garde jazz.
The merged group returned to the studio in early 1975 to record Henry Cow's In Praise of Learning (as "Henry Cow/Slapp Happy"). The only real contribution from Slapp Happy (besides Dagmar's singing) was the Moore/Blegvad song "War", which blended in well with the album's political aggression. But differences in approach between the two groups had came to a head in April 1975 and Anthony Moore and Peter Blegvad quit, suggesting that Henry Cow's music was too serious (and political) for their liking. Dagmar Krause, however, elected to remain with Henry Cow, who needed a vocalist to bolster their sound. But this effectively spelt the end of Slapp Happy as a band.
[edit] Reunions
Anthony Moore and Peter Blegvad then both embarked on separate solo careers. In 1982 the trio reunited briefly to record a Slapp Happy single, "Everybody's Slimmin' (Even Men and Women)" on their own private label, Half-Cat Records. Here Krause sings rap-style to a rhythm box sound. They also performed live at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1983.
The three collaborated again in 1991 on a BBC commissioned television opera "Camera", based on an original idea by Dagmar Krause, with words by Peter Blegvad and music by Anthony Moore. Dagmar played the lead character "Melusina" and the opera was broadcast two years later on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. The soundtrack Camera was released on CD in 2000, although under the names "Dagmar Krause, Anthony Moore and Peter Blegvad". Aside from Dagmar's singing, the music on Camera was performed by other artists and for that reason, Camera is not strictly a Slapp Happy album.
In 1997 Slapp Happy reunited again to record a new studio album Ça Va on Richard Branson's new V2 label. It was Slapp Happy's first album since 1975 and the music picked up from where they had left off with literate and quirky pop songs. A departure from the past, however, was that they made the music themselves. They played all the instruments and used a digital studio to produce a layered sound on many of the tracks. This departure from Slapp Happy's "acoustic sound" disappointed some fans, but overall the album was well received.
Slapp Happy was very popular in Japan and in 2000 they toured there, playing on stage without any backing musicians. A CD Live in Japan was released in 2001 in Japan only.
[edit] Music
Slapp Happy's music was eccentric pop with an "avant-garde" twist to it. It drew on a variety of musical idioms, including waltzes, bossa novas, French chansons and tangos. The songs' lyrics were literate and playful while the mood varied from "dreamy" to sinister.
But it was Dagmar Krause's unusual and eerie high-pitched voice that was the group's most arresting feature. Her German-inflected vocals ranged from a sweet melodious croon to the "love-it-or-hate-it" Armageddon style typified on In Praise of Learning.
[edit] Members
- Anthony Moore – guitar, keyboards, percussion, programming, tape manipulation, toy theremin, melodica, harmonica, vocals
- Peter Blegvad – guitar, bass guitar, saxophone, clarinet, percussion, harmonica, vocals
- Dagmar Krause – vocals, piano, percussion, harmonica
Note: Dagmar Krause was credited as "Daggi" on Slapp Happy's first album, Sort Of (1972). On the next three albums, Slapp Happy (1974), Desperate Straights (1975) and In Praise of Learning (1975), she was credited as "Dagmar". From Acnalbasac Noom (1980) onwards Krause was credited with her full name.
[edit] Discography
The year below indicates the release date (not the recording date).
[edit] Albums
- 1972 Sort Of (LP Polydor, Germany)
- 1974 Slapp Happy (also known as Casablanca Moon) (LP Virgin Records, U.K.)
- 1975 Desperate Straights (with Henry Cow) (LP Virgin Records, U.K.)
- 1975 In Praise of Learning (with Henry Cow) (LP Virgin Records, U.K.)
- 1980 Acnalbasac Noom (LP Recommended Records, U.K.)
- 1998 Ça Va (CD V2 Records, U.K.)
- 2000 Camera (as "Dagmar Krause/Anthony Moore/Peter Blegvad") (CD Blueprint Records, U.K.)
- 2001 Live in Japan (CD FMN Records, Japan)
[edit] Singles
- 1972 "Just a Conversation" / "Jumpin' Jonah'" (7" Polydor, Germany)
- 1974 "Casablanca Moon" / "Slow Moon's Rose" (7" Virgin Records, U.K.)
- 1981 "Alcohol" (7" Recommended Records, U.K.) – one-sided bonus single issued with RēR re-issue of Sort Of
- 1983 "Everybody's Slimmin' (Even Men and Women)" / "Blue-Eyed William" (7" Half-Cat Records, U.K.)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Slapp Happy biography/discography/interviews. Air Structures.
- Peter Blegvad biography. The Canterbury Website.
- Slapp Happy John Peel sessions. BBC Radio 1.
- Slapp Happy at Allmusic.
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