NOCTURNAL EARTHWORM STEW

While not everyone's cup o tea, Nocturnal Earthworm Stew (or if you prefer the french title, Bouillabaisse nocture aux vers de terre) is an important, but oft overlooked recording. David Pritchard was a student at the University of Toronto's Electronic course when he purchased his first EMS AKS Synthesizer and began experimenting with the world of electronic music. Compared, at the time to Brian Eno, Pritchard combined electronics with recordings of ambient sounds with more traditional instruments with odd treatments (The Harry Parchment features an instant coffee jar, scissors and a glockenspiel recorded backwards). The album was also very important for introducing the world to a couple of musicians - Nash The Slash and Martin Deller, who, with Cameron Hawkins, would go on to form FM a couple of years later. (Oh, and an interesting bit of trivia - it was David Pritchard who suggested that Brian Eno check out Grant Avenue Studio and Daniel Lanois.....)

Reviewing this album on a track by track basis would somehow seem wrong as the pieces, while not intentionally, flow into each other and create a fairly cohesive package which was ahead of it's time. Not quite ambient, but definitely a precursor of that genre.