Warthur Whether LegEnd by Henry Cow is an "RIO" album or not seems to be a matter of debate. For my part, I would say that the term "RIO" is meaningless when applied to anything released before the actual RIO festivals were set up, because the participants in them had very little in common musically beyond being shunned by the record companies and having an avant- garde approach to progressive music. It makes somewhat more sense to apply the label to works by the original bands after the festivals kicked off, since it would only be natural for them to draw more on each others' ideas after working so closely together, and it makes perfect sense to apply it.

So, if LegEnd isn't RIO, what is it? For my part, I think it has an undeniably Canterbury-influenced sound, making it no surprise that Henry Cow members would crop up on undeniably Canterbury albums from time to time. It sounds, in fact, like the group taking the Soft Machine's work on Third in a different direction from the free jazz that legendary group would drift into on its fourth and fifth studio albums, opting instead to add a few elements of chamber music, draining out the spaciness and adding some wild Gentle Giant instrumentation and complexity (and some vocal harmonies when it comes to the matter of the Citizen King). It's certainly an interesting mixture and a good start for the group, though their most original work was yet to come.

Sean Trane Before starting, let's just dispel a few myths: the first being that HC originated from Cambridge (as did Pink Floyd) and not Canterbury, even if sound-wise they approached Kent's capital. The second is how HC is regarded as the RIO par excellence: when the RIO chart was sealed by six groups coming from six lands, Henry Cow was nearing the end of its existence, so in fact very few of its music is sporting the RIO flag, even if of course the spirit and intention was there. As for history, HC's roots can be traced back to 68 with guitarist/violinist Frith and keyboards/windman Hodginson's partnership, as later joined consecutively by Greaves on bass, Cutler (through a common gig with the Ottawa Music Company) on drums and eventually Geoff Leigh (who would depart soon after this album's release) on wind instruments. This album is to be read as Leg End (hence the sox artwork) and quickly became the UFO that every self-respecting progressive artist had to hear (hence its legend) - I never thought I'd be able to pull this one ;-). Musically describing Henry Cow is not as risqué as you might think (even if they were groundbreaking and never-done before), but if you can picture Gentle Giant/Gryphon pre-classical music, mixed with Zappa's sense of aesthetics, crossed with Soft Machine's zaniness, and Bartok's school of classical composition, you're actually fairly close to the truth. In all truth, Leg End is maybe the most accessible of HC's records because the least dissonant, but that's not saying that this album's music is top 40 material, far from it. You will find atonal, discordant moments two of the last three tracks), but compared to future records of theirs, this is rather lower key.

Out of the most outstanding works ever put out is Amygdala with its stupendous Canterbury jazz-prog ala Hatfield with a more unconventional array of instrument. This tracks rocks, jazzes, kents, classics, sweeps you in the stratosphere and throws you back out after it chewed your brains out, after having trampled down by a Gryphon-like beat. The flipside opener Yellow Half-Moon is also quite awesome, providing chills down the spine once the flute takes centerstage, before quickly leading in the closing section Teenbeat, which will not fail to shred you mind into a pulp-like pasta plate with Frith's fuzz guitar solo.

More unsettling are the two tracks Nirvana and Teenbeat who seems to get entangled throughout the track list; Teenbeat is often axed towards free-jazz and its three parts can be considered like the harder to get music, even if the reprise is much more energetic (Cutler being outstanding, here), as they sound like some kind of Centipede in Septober Energy. The Nirvana thing is book-ending the album's first side and not that spectacular. While a good part of the album's flipside is occupied by two free-jazz/atonal music, neither Chaffing, nor Bellycan are enthralling, but they sandwich the only sung track, the Wyatt-ey Nine Funerals.

Apparently this record was made from a flurry of material to choose from, and I find it rather dismaying that there aren't posthumous releases (at least two or three) of prior-to-debut-album music that have been made available before. Nevertheless, if you are not that much into RIO (or future RIO), but would like to investigate Henry Cow, I suggest that you start with LegEnd, because it only gets more complex and dissonant from this one onward. In the meantime HC's debut stands as my fave from them and could have reached the fifth star had they diddled a little less with atonalities