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2CD/DVD
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REELR 021/23CD
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Electric guitar radical G.F. Fitz-Gerald and soprano saxophone subversive Lol Coxhill; dual masters of spontaneous art and intuitive music, unleash The Poppy Seed Affair, a three disc collection for your edification and confoundment. The Poppy Seed Affair film was produced in 1981 by London's anarch-oholic troupe, The Matchbox Purveyors; Ian Hinchcliffe, Jeff Nuttall, Mark Long, G.F. Fitz-Gerald, Lol Coxhill & Foxy. Inimitable soundtrack by Lol Coxhill, sometimes in trio with drummer Robert Wyatt and bassist Archie Leggett. Now rescued from utter obscurity to DVD (NTSC all-region; run time: 30 minutes), this comedic tour-de-farce juggles the insane and the inane with a twist of the profane. Complementing this complete experience are two extraordinary compact discs mastered directly from true-to-life tape recordings out of the G.F. Fitz-Gerald archive. CD1 is an intimate, close-mic concert recording of Fitz-Gerald & Coxhill at Newcastle's Spectro Arts Workshop, 1981. Here, the duo's mercurial genius for spatial sonics is fully displayed. CD2 collects several works for tape, beginning with "Listen Collage," which reconstructs, à la Faust Tapes, random room sounds of bizarre hippie domesticity, bedroom radios, tape recorders and ambient street sounds from London's Ladbrooke Grove during the spring of 1969. Unmistakably, this is a prodigious 20-minute audio adventure unique to its epoch. Following "Listen Collage" are two extended works for prepared guitars and sundry effects, leading to the sampled tape loop trip "Band In My Head." And lastly, a tape collage for The Matchbox Purveyors' stage show, The Team. This entire disc transforms the magic of the creative moment into deeply experiential realms for our mind's-eye. Furthermore, in refusing to impose any impure digital processing whatsoever, these analog recordings remain en vérité. Few guitarists have so audaciously scaled the sonic heights G.F. Fitz-Gerald has, no other saxophonist sounds as Lol Coxhill does, and Reel Recordings proudly presents a profusion of their unadulterated artistry throughout this rare archival collection. The Poppy Seed Affair is delivered as a numbered limited edition of 500 copies.
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