Voiceprint
Slapp Happy : Ca va (UK,rec.1997,pub.2009)***
Dagmar Krause is a remarkable and very distinctive voice. She started in East Germany with the avant-progressive rock band ID Company. Slapp Happy was her most poppy band, still progressive in her approach on the edge of the avant-garde milieu. So when they moved to England, they first cooperated with the R.I.O. chamber-rock band Henry Cow, creating with them possibly the most expressive moments of her carreer. When Henry Cow disbanded, Dagmar moved to the new group Art Bears, another avant-pop band. Later Dagmar Krause sang her East German heritage of Brecht/Eisler songs on another LP also worthwhile to tracing. It took until 1997 before Slapp Happy suddenly was re-established again, resulting in this release. It is much more of a crafty song album with accompaniment. The production is on the edge of a more mainstream or pop/rock approach, with a 80s forward sound production, but with arrangements that still are distinctive enough to mean more than just suiting the songs. There are even a few surprising exotic elements in the arrangements (percussion), and despite the use of some drum machines and its studio production, it works. Dagmar’s voice, after all these years takes often more restraint when expressing herself, with a deepened voice, singing with retrospective the aspects of a past life, but some other songs return to her typical, slightly weird and attractive characteristics of her more higher pitched voice. The front sleeve of “Ca Va” (which means “ok”) makes a joke of the three musicians presenting them (as shadow paintings) as old men. At the same time this same subject is serious.
The album was first released on V2 records. This is a more widely available reissue.
