Under Heavy Manners / God Save the Queen
From ETWiki
Originally released: 1980 Personnel
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Tracks
Under Heavy Manners:
- 5'14 Under Heavy Manners
- 12'38 The Zero Of The Signified
God Save the Queen:
- 6'54 Red Two Scorer
- 9'50 God Save The Queen
- 13'20 1983
Reviews
Reviews are listed in chronological order within each section. Please retain a chronological order when adding new reviews.
Entire Release
Date Submitted: 6-Apr-98
By: Peter Wiseman (pete_wiseman at hotmail dot com)
"I don't know about the availability of this album on C.D., but as a vinyl release it's clearly an album of two distinct sides (as the double title indicates). Under Heavy Manners - side one - is Discotronics ("the interstice of Frippertronics and Disco"), which sees Buster 'Cherry' Jones (who played rubbery bass on some early Eno albums alongside Fripp) and a no-nonsense drummer pounding away to Fripp's guitar loops. On top of track one is a long, shouted list of words ending in '-ism', which is delivered with suitably unhinged humour, culminating in the maxim "I am resplendent in divergence". Track two is similar musically, although lyricless...there's a lovely super-fast guitar run underpinning the whole thing. These tracks are good - and would particularly please Exposure-addicts - but I prefer the League Of Gentlemen.
"Side two - God Save The Queen - consists of three Frippertronics tracks, all of which could have been included on the Let The Power Fall album (in fact, parts sound so similar that perhaps they're different takes of the same tracks(???))...which is to say that they're superb.
"The liner notes to this album are excellent, clearly outlining Fripp's early attitudes to performer/audience relations. Another bonus which I wasn't expecting was the mint-condition postcard included with the record...does anyone know if there were more than one design printed (mine is the b&w picture of RF and two Revoxes)? Oh, and the cover is hilarious..."
Date Submitted: 3-Oct-99
By: John Brown (johnniebrownie at worldnet dot att dot net)
"Robert Fripp forgot to use his fuzzbox on Under Heavy Manners/GS The Queen but its a good album anyways. I used to listen to it all the time.
"There are musical incidents on side one that defy description. And the complexity on the LP is comparable to the legendary Exposure album. So anyways side one is pretty amazing, David Bryne and all. Side two is pure frippertronics which convey much more of a guitar sound than Fripp's recent solo improv works. The clean sound on side two could have been a deliberate effort to push himself musically at the time. Instead of relying on the proven formulae of the fuzzbox. Anyways, Fripp's effort and dedication are well documented. Side two was one of the original inspirations for those who wanted to try analog looping and mess with the cumbersome tape players in the 80's. Additionally, side two sounds good backwards as the layers build from quiet to loud. Which is cool, especially in transitions."
Date Submitted: 5-Dec-99
By: David Wheeler (deva at koyote dot com)
"This album is clearly 2 EP's packaged as an LP-that notwithstanding, it ranks amongst Fripp's finest work. "Under Heavy Manners" is simply awe-inspiring, one can only wish that Fripp had been a Talking Head. "The Zero Of The Signified" has always seemed to me an extended solo for "Under Heavy Manners" (and perhaps would have been if that tape had not broken). The God Save The Queen side is a pre-cursor to Let The Power Fall although not quite as tightly focused, still excellent.
"A good early portrait of Fripp "resplendent in divergence"."
