Allies (Fred Frith album)

Infobox Album
Name = Allies
Type = Studio album
Artist = Fred Frith


Background = orange
Released = 1996
Recorded = October 1989 and
August 1995
Genre = Experimental rock
Avant-garde jazz
Length = 40:36
Label = RecRec (Switzerland)
Producer = Bebe Miller
Reviews =
*"Allmusic" Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:mehqoalaeijn link]
*Piero Scaruffi (5/10) [http://www.scaruffi.com/vol3/frith.html link] | Last album = "Middle of the Moment"
(1995)
This album = "Allies"
(1996)
Next album = "Eye to Ear"
(1997)
Misc = Extra chronology 2
Artist = Fred Records
Type = Studio
Last album = "Cheap at Half the Price"
(2004)
Fred Frith
(RēR/FRO 06)
This album = "Allies"
(2004)
Fred Frith
(RēR/FRO 07)
Next album = "Learn to Talk / The Country of Blinds"
(2005)
Skeleton Crew
(RēR/FRO 8/9) Extra album cover
Upper caption = Re-issues
Background = CadetBlue


Lower caption = Fred Records re-issue (2004).

"Allies (Music for Dance volume 2)" is a studio album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It was the second of a series of Music for Dance albums Frith made.

Background

In 1989 Frith was commissioned by choreographer Bebe Miller to write a suite of music for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's "Next Wave" series. Frith composed and recorded the suite, "Allies", in October 1989 with musicians Tom Cora and George Cartwright, with whom Frith had been collaborating for a number of years. The percussion on the recording was provided by a drum machine that Frith had programmed. "Allies" premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in November 1989.

In August 1995 Frith began preparing "Allies" for release on an album, but was unhappy with the computerised drumming. He asked drummer Joey Baron of Naked City (in which Frith also played bass guitar) to re-record the drum tracks (six years after the original recording was made). The resulting mix was released by RecRec Music in 1996.

Track listing

#"Rifka" (Frith) – 9:36
#"Small Mercy I" (Frith) – 4:25
#"Nenad" (Frith) – 7:52
#"A Rock and a Hard Place" (Frith) – 6:17
#"Davor and Dzeneta" (Frith) – 6:24
#"Small Mercy II" (Frith) – 6:02

Personnel

*Fred Frith – bass guitar, guitar, violin, keyboards, drum machine, tape manipulations
*Tom Cora – cello
*George Cartwright – alto saxophone
*Joey Baron – drums

Production

*Martin Bisi – recording engineer
*Benedykt Grodon – mixer
*Bebe Miller – producer

Re-issues

In 2004 Fred Records issued a remastered version of the album, which Frith dedicated to Daniel Waldner: "For Daniel, with love and gratitude". Waldner was the founder of RecRec Music (Frith's record label in the 1990s) who had died in a mountain climbing accident in 1995, precipitating the collapse of the label in 1997. [ cite web |url=http://bordermusic.wordpress.com/2007/01/16/recommended-records-zurich-recrec/ |title="Recommended Records, Zürich (RecRec)" |work=Border Music |accessdate=2007-01-30 ]

References

External links

*amg | id = 10:mehqoalaeijn | label = Allies
* [http://home.arcor.de/nyds-exp-discogs/frith.htm Fred Frith discography]