Monday 2 February 2015

Hugh Hopper: US review

http://www.mwe3.com/archive/pastfeature/featureMusicRevWinter2015.htm


GONZO MULTIMEDIA - One of the key musicians from the dawn of late 1960’s progressive rock, the late great Hugh Hopper passed away in June 2009. Considered as a founding member of classic U.K. prog outfit Soft Machine, strangely enough replacing Kevin Ayers on bass in 1969, Hopper rose through the ranks and released a large body of work before his untimely passing. Fans of Hopper and Soft Machine can celebrate his work thanks to a voluminous body of work, encompassing over sixty different albums Hugh recorded with various bands and as a solo artist. Gonzo’s 10 CD series is appropriately entitled Dedicated To Hugh and the first two installments—Memories(Volume 1 - a cross section of tracks spanning Hopper’s career, starting in 1969) and Frangloband (Volume 2 - Live at The Triton Club, Paris 2004) were released in mid 2014. Each of these first two CDs is packed with detailed liner notes and rare pics of Hopper with a number of key bands and musicians. Memories features in depth interview and liner notes while Frangloband features more modest packaging including liner notes by Aymeric Leroy. Released by the great U.K. based label Gonzo Multimedia, each CD in the series was superbly compiled, edited and mastered by Michael King. Fans of Soft Machine as well as Hopper’s prodigious output in a number of bands will enjoy this in depth look into the archives of a real hero of U.K. prog-rock.

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT GONZO:

Volume 6: Special Friends
SCD - £9.99

Volume Four: Four by Four by Hu
CD - £9.99

Volume 2 Franglo Band
CD - £9.99

Memories
CD - £9.99

Monster Band
CD - £9.99


No comments:

Post a Comment

...BECAUSE SOME OF US THINK THAT THIS STUFF IS IMPORTANT
What happens when you mix what is - arguably - the world's most interesting record company, with an anarchist manic-depressive rock music historian polymath, and a method of dissemination which means that a daily rock-music magazine can be almost instantaneous?

Most of this blog is related in some way to the music, books and films produced by Gonzo Multimedia, but the editor has a grasshopper mind and so also writes about all sorts of cultural issues which interest him, and which he hopes will interest you as well.