Henry Cow – Western Culture

This is A MONSTER album of Rock In Opposition music and contemporary music, reaching beyond the rock and classical genres at its latest 20th-century expression! A masterpiece!

My copy has the first first track of 'Day by Day' ending side A. Side B starts with 'Gretal's Tale' and only has 3 tracks.

I'd imagine it's like this on all copies of this reissue so I'll change this for now but if anyone can confirm their copies too that'd be great. Going to inquire over at ReR.

This was always a really fine come-back album, after the dissolution of the Henry Cow & Slapp Happy project (and the, in parallel Art Bears) that is. But, strangely, it's often overlooked.
WESTERN CULTURE saw Henry Cow return to their original instrumental formula, extensively featuring Lindsay Cooper's winds, and in turn - having influenced a number of other RIO acts - the Henry Cow sound saw a great deal of influence from Univers Zero, and some of the more esoteric elements of the Zamla Mammaz Manna sound. Recorded at Sunrise Studios, Kirchberg, Switzerland (January-August 1978) by Etienne Conod, the production was so precise and really making use of his talent at multi-tracking. Such is the case that Henry Cow: Tim Hodgkinson (organs, alto sax, clarinet, guitar, piano), Lindsay Cooper (bassoon, oboe, soprano sax, recorders), Fred Frith (guitars, bass, soprano sax), Chris Cutler (drums, noise, piano, trumpet) plus Anne-Marie Roelofs (trombone, violin); all sound more like a mini-orchestra than the small band they were.
The album's two suites: History & Prospects (Tim Hodgkinson) and Day By Day (Lindsay Cooper) each encompassed every aspect of the instrumental Henry Cow sound to date, all riddled with the usual weird twists, complex arrangements, unusual rhythms and pure deluges of solos, duets, and such-like all inside or against the framework of the music. I've reviewed the album before, back in my RIO Henry Cow feature (Audion #31) so won't attempt to repeat myself here!
Bizarrely, although the other RéR reissues of Henry Cow albums don't include the bonus material found on the ESD releases, this does feature bonus material! Interestingly, the bonus follows a 1½ minute silent track, and consists of Viva Pa Ubu (originally on the RECOMMENDED RECORDS SAMPLER) and two short pieces Look Back (alt) and Slice, which seem to be remnants from the original sessions.

"Western Culture" was recorded july 1978 at sunrise studio, but album was released not before october 1979, first copies arrived in switzerland january 1980!