THE COUNTRY OF BLINDS

The second album of Skeleton Crew, Country Of Blinds (also recorded in Switzerland produced by another Henry Cow alumni Hodgkinson) is certainly even less accessible than its predecessor and it announces it right from the bat with the opening title track (and later Man Or Monkey) that is purposely sabotaged by tampering with the tapes. Parkins' presence does not calm Frith and Cora either, but this album is slightly easier on the ears sometimes because it is less sung (but when it is it still sounds like Damo-Belew) and gets more often into grooves (Border, Hand That Bites), giving you the chance to get used to the general weirdness. However Parkins' accordion does get on my nerves (all accordions do), and with the strangeitude of the songwriting, the whole thing is a little too much for me. There is also a fairly evident feel of 80's "funk feel" into the music as it reminds me a bit of Talking Heads and Belew-era Crimson, mostly through Frith's guitar parts.

Both albums got released as a 2 on 1 Cd, with a few tracks missing, which is probably a rather good deal if you're into this stuff. Please read the separate album entry's reviews just in case I am not convincing enough into avoiding this band. Generally I am normally fully appreciative of Henry Cow alumni project (from Massacre to News From Babel), but I must say that Frith's Skeleton Crew and Cutler's German adventures of Cassiber are both a little too much for this writer's sanity.

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