Browse by Artist: DRAKE, BOB

Artist:	DRAKE, BOB
Title:	What Day Is It?
Label:	AD HOC RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	ADHOC 010CD

"Bob is already celebrated for his five ReR solo CDs, as well as for his long and illustrious career as a member of Thinking Plague, Hail, 5uu's, Vril, The Science Group, AA Kismet, ...the list goes on. What Day Is It? already exhibits Bob's characteristic traits: golden fingers, hi-wire vocals, eyebrow-raising country-picking, loose-but-right-in-the-pocket drums, eccentric chord inversions, and a bass-guitar sound to make you want to work like crazy or quit. Sitting happily with the fantasy 'Yes' Euro-progressive surface is the rather more substantial depth of a bluegrass and rooted-rock American culture; an almost unique combination and one hard to imitate (or even imagine, until you hear Bob do it). But then, Bob has always marched to the beat of a different drummer, manifestly careless of the fashion or of the easier, more superficial aspects of the music he has absorbed."

Artist:	DRAKE, BOB
Title:	13 Songs and a Thing
Label:	RECOMMENDED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RER CTA13

"In 13 Songs we encounter complex Henry Cow type rock, heavy metal chords, Turkish influenced manic acoustic guitar, horror movie soundtrack music, and flashes of old time rock n roll. And that's just the intro! Later on Bob gets mean and dirty with his fingerpickin' guitar, a music full of dead stops and unexpected changes of texture. He occasionally sings in his pure, Yes-like choirboy tones, spitting out twisted lyrics. A dog lets off a couple of barks in unexpected places. So nothing new then; just another crazed mix of Hillbilly music, Frank Zappa-like composition, mordant wit, and some fantastically heavy guitar and drums. Bonny Prince Billy meets Beefheart via The Beatles."

Artist:	DRAKE, BOB
Title:	The Skull Mailbox
Label:	RECOMMENDED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RER CTA9

"Bob Drake was one half of Indie rock group Hail, and still plays bass with ruthless avant rockers The 5UUS. As a producer, he's worked with everyone from Ice T to Englebert Humperdink. Another card in Drake's hand is the bizarre series of solo albums he's produced in the last few years, with no one else there to curb his wild imagination. Little Black Train introduced us to his version of Death-Country, and Medallion Animal Carpet followed up with what sounded like a collaboration between Bonnie Prince Billy and Captain Beefheart. And now there's Skull Mailbox. With this CD Drake has lost it altogether. Strange little picked guitar pieces are the basis for grotesque songs; a seance goes horribly wrong, headless ghosts fly about, and everyone ends up dead, or locked in the cellar, or both. Interjections by massed choir and orchestra suggest a 19th Century comic opera, and influences are as diverse as the Beatles and Henry Cow. Occasionally drums pop out of the far left of the speaker, vocals far right, grunging noises appear without warning, and everything has a rotting compost quality which makes it sound like it was recorded in a decaying barn -- which indeed it was!"

Artist:	DRAKE, BOB
Title:	The Shunned Country
Label:	RECOMMENDED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RER CTASC01

"On his fifth full album for ReR, virtuoso bass player, guitarist, producer, studio engineer and composer Bob Drake presents a new collection of 52 very short songs on uncanny themes, illustrated in the exquisite 24pp full-colour booklet with a set of 20 commissioned paintings by Ray O'Bannon. Perhaps the scariest thing is that each of these miniatures is a fully formed, fully orchestrated and complete structure -- no lazy snippets here -- and Bob plays all the parts with his famously Paganini-esque virtuosity in spooky variable-tempo synchrony -- packing more ideas and material into 50 seconds than most could manage on an entire album. There is complexity here, disguised as simplicity; production genius disguised as eccentricity; the pursuit of an aesthetic of exquisite imperfection. These are ears that have heard beyond technical perfection (too easy, once you have the trick) and moved on to something else."

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