Speechless (Fred Frith album)

Background and recording

Speechless was the second of a series of three solo albums Frith made for The Residents's record label Ralph Records, the first being Gravity (1980), an avant-garde "dance" record that drew on rhythm and dance from folk music across the world, and the third being Cheap at Half the Price (1983). He had recorded with The Residents in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and appeared on several of their albums. Gravity was well received by music critics.

Just as he had worked with two backing bands on Gravity (Swedish Rock in Opposition group Samla Mammas Manna and United States progressive rock group The Muffins), on Speechless Frith used French Rock in Opposition group Etron Fou Leloublan and his own New York City band Massacre. Side one of the LP record was recorded with Etron Fou Leloublan at Studio Freeson in Pujaut, France and at Sunrise Studios, Kirchberg, Switzerland in July and August 1980. Side two of the LP consists of four tracks built around extracts from a Massacre concert at CBGB in New York City in April 1980: "A Spit in the Ocean", "Navajo" and "Saving Grace" were later altered and added to by Frith at Sunrise Studios in July and August 1980, while "Conversations With White Arc" is an unaltered improvised piece. The remaining four tracks of side two were recorded by Frith at Sunrise during the same period.

On Speechless, Frith continued his exploration of world folk and dance music that he had begun on Gravity, but unlike Gravity, Speechless included extensive use of found sounds and field recordings. Frith said that many of the tapes were made while walking the streets of New York City, and include street fairs and demonstrations. Recordings were also made while visiting friends: the title song's rhythm track is provided by a malfunctioning water pipe in Tim Hodgkinson's kitchen.

At the time Frith had a passion for tape manipulation and "sound malfunctions". In a 1982 interview with Down Beat magazine Frith said that so much more can be done with tape: "I'm interested in using the studio for things that you couldn't possibly do in a performance, to use the medium of tape in a way that is intrinsic to it." He added that hardware malfunctions often result in more interesting sounds than was originally intended: "[A] lot of the sounds that I get in the studio have been specifically the result of overloading or causing to malfunction various pieces of technology, like harmonizers or digital delays."

Frith described the theme of Speechless as revolving around "questions of power and language, of striving to find a voice but remaining always on the edge being understood." This notion came to him when he once tried to listen to a recording of an interview he had done, and the cassette machine played back both sides of the tape at the same time, backwards, rendering the words unintelligible. Andrew Jones wrote in Plunderphonics, 'pataphysics & pop mechanics: an introduction to musique actuelle that Speechless is "ultimately about being unable to articulate the words that once flowed freely."

Music

Speechless is an instrumental album that includes elements of folk music, free improvisation, avant-rock and noise, plus field recordings and tape manipulation. Featured are also many "happy accidents" that resulted from "sound malfunctions" in the studio. The tracks on the album vary from folk and melodic pieces (including the waltz ballad "Domaine de Planousset"), to noisy avant-rock ("A Spit in the Ocean"), to layered sound collages ("Speechless").

Glenn Astarita at Jazz Review said that the listener can expect "the unexpected, amid pounding backbeats, variable rhythmic flows, and multihued soundscapes." Peter Marsh at BBC Music described the music as being an "unholy alliance" between Captain Beefheart's Magic Band and King Crimson.

Reception and influence

Rock critic Peter Marsh, in a BBC Music review, described Speechless as "beautifully progressive musicmaking that doesn't take itself too seriously." Glenn Astarita at Jazz Review said the album was "highly recommended", adding that "Frith’s off-kilter methodologies translate into a fun-filled production, awash with a cartoon-like rationale." Tom Schulte at AllMusic wrote that Speechless is often regarded as one of Frith's best solo albums, and that its "inspired manipulations hold up under repeated scrutiny."

The waltz ballad "Domaine de Planousset" was performed live by Frith several times, including at the 4th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Victoriaville in Quebec, Canada with René Lussier in October 1986, and at the Bahnhof Langendreer in Bochum, Germany with Frith's band, Keep the Dog in mid-1991. The performance with Lussier was released as "Domaine Revisited" on Nous Autres in 1987, and the performance with Keep the Dog was released as "Domaine de Langendreer" on That House We Lived In in 2003. "Conversations With White Arc" was revisited on Massacre's 1998 album, Funny Valentine as "Further Conversations With White Arc".

Track listing

All tracks composed by Fred Frith except where noted.

Side One

Recorded at Studio Freeson, Pujaut, France and at Sunrise Studios, Kirchberg, Switzerland in July and August 1980.

Side Two

Recorded at Sunrise Studios, Kirchberg, Switzerland in July and August, 1980. Tracks 1, 4 and the end of track 2 were recorded live at a Massacre concert at CBGB in New York City, April 1980, and were later altered and added to in Switzerland; track 6 is an unaltered improvised piece from the same concert.

Bonus tracks on 1991 CD re-issue

Artwork

CD reissues

In 1991 East Side Digital and RecRec Music re-issued Speechless on CD with six additional tracks. In 2003 Fred Records issued a remastered version of the original Speechless LP on CD with no extra tracks.

Works cited