SLAPP HAPPY / HENRY COW: DESPERATE STRAIGHTS

Slapp Happy's magnificent Desperate Straights, enhanced by Henry Cow volunteering themselves as a backing band, is an excellent counterpoint to the Cow-backed-by-Slapp album In Praise of Learning. Aside from the excellent War, In Praise of Learning was focused mainly on unwelcoming avant-garde soundscapes; here, though, Slapp Happy's more song- based approach reigns supreme, as does a more diverse musical aesthetic. Dagmar Krause turns in a vocal performance that's more diverse than the witchy rants required of her on In Praise of Learning, Peter Blegvad gets a turn on vocals on the frantic summer sensation of Strayed, and the instrumentalists show a deft instinct for when to add an experimental twist to the songs and when to play them straight. Of the two major fruits of the Slapp-Cow collaboration, I'd say this is by far my favourite.