Slapp Happy
Sort Of

Released through Polydor Records (Germany) in 1972, “Sort Of” is a debut recording by the international rock-band SLAPP HAPPY featuring: Anthony Moore (guitars, keyboards), his soon to be wife Dagmar Krause (vocals, piano, tambourine), and Peter Blegvad (vocals, guitars, sax). It was recorded in Wümme, with the German kraut-rock band FAUST as a backing line-up: Werner Diermaier (drums) and Jean-Hervé Péron (bass) on all tracks, and Gunther Wüsthoff (sax) on a couple of tracks. “Sort Of” was conceived as a pop-album, Moore and Blegvald even described it as “simple and naive pop-rock” in their interviews. But the fact is that the LP was far from the commercial success, and not only because SLAPP HAPPY didn’t play live gigs. The songs by Moore-Blegvad incorporated too many elements of the Zappanesque Avant-Prog-Fusion and experimental Kraut-Rock. At the time, Dagmar Krause had some of problems with her voice, so she mostly shared the vocal duties with Peter Blegvad. But it’s definitely her idiosyncratic singing that brought to the music a special theatrical chanson-fleur, not so far at times from early songs by Sparks. Overall, “Sort Of” a very solid album for fans of Avant-Pop-Prog music in a wide spectrum of influences. The CD re-issue (13 tracks, 46 mins), which was first released by Blueprint Records (UK) in 1999 and included an extra B-side track “Jumping Jonah”, was mastered from a vinyl copy as the master tapes had been lost. However, the sound is engineered just brilliantly, and the listening to the CD is a real pleasure. Try it for sure.

MUY BUEN DISCO PARA SER EL PRIMERO DE LA BANDA, LA VOZ DE DAGMAR KRAUZE ES INCONFUNDIBLE SU FUERZA Y CAMBIOS DE ARMONIA LA HACEN UNICA, MUY RECOMENDABLE PARA SEGUIR LOS PASOS DE SUS INICIOS DE ESTA BANDA DE ROCK,FOLK Y OPOSISION