MIKE COOPER
''THE MACHINE GUN CO. WITH MIKE COOPER''
1972
38:53
1 - Song For Abigail/9:02
2 - The Singing Tree/5:35
3 - Midnight Words/3:30
4 - So Glad (That I Found You)/15:19
5 - Lady Anne/5:15
All Tracks By Cooper
Tim Richardson/Percussion
Geoff Hawkins/Saxophone, Melodica, Pipe (Reed Pipe)
Mike Cooper/Vocals, Acoustic, Bottleneck & Electric Guitars
Les Calvert/Electric Bass On 2
Alan Cook/Electric Piano On 5
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
Mike Cooper's final release for Pye was an acrimonious one. Machine Gun Co. was originally to be a double album, with Places I Know being the first disc. That album was released a full two years earlier, with Machine Gun Company being held in abeyance all the while. The delay put a huge burden on a touring band with no new record to support; they split before the release of Machine Gun Company. Cooper waited out the final two years of his contract and didn't record again until 1975 for the Fresh Air label. It's too bad that Pye didn't have the foresight to issue both albums as one package (a BGO CD-reissue placed them both on one disc in 1998) to reveal the true breadth and dimension of Cooper's musical ability and ambition. There are only five songs on Machine Gun Company. They range from the pastoral, traditional folk of "The Singing Tree"; to the avant-country-reggae lilt of "Song for Abigail," that was as ambitious (at nine-plus minutes) -- if more overtly melodic -- as anything on Tim Buckley's Lorca; to the 15-minute Velvet Underground-meets-Sun Ra/rock/free jazz workout that is "So Glad (That I Found You)." And while these references are largely useless in trying to describe this music, they are significant mapping points for Cooper, who was deeply influenced by all of the aforementioned artists. The album has a rough, raw, organic feel to it that none of his other recordings have; they exist starkly in contrast to the nine songs on the first half (previously known as Places I Know). The free-for-all quality of these recordings; their loose yet defined song structures; and their compositional frameworks, represent for Cooper the opening of a musical world so wide that all boundaries between the music in his subsequent recordings would be erased completely. Machine Gun Company was not simply an experiment that worked; it was a work of art that experimented with the idea of music being one vast universe with song being its poetic and foundational heart. This disc is easily Cooper's greatest musical achievement.
BIOGRAPHY
By ROVI
b. 1943, England.
A singer and guitarist based for most of his years in Reading, Berkshire, England, Cooper was one of the leading lights of the country blues movement in Britain in the 60s. His first bookings came at the Shades cafe, and led to his first recording, Out Of The Shades, an EP for the independent Kennet Records label. By now a major advocate of the blues, he established a popular folk/blues club in Reading and was one of the instigators of the Matchbox label, for which he also recorded. There were even rumours that he turned down an offer to join the Rolling Stones.
Between 1968 and 1974 Cooper appeared on the Pye Records, Dawn and Fresh Air labels, and he also contributed guitar work to records by Ian A. Anderson, Stefan Grossman and Heron. His own solo album debut came in 1969 with Oh Really?, but it was not until the advent of a follow-up collection a year later that he had begun to write his own material. This only gelled fully on the same year’s minor masterpiece, Trout Steel, a visionary mix of blues and free jazz improvisation. The formula was further refined on 1971’s Places I Know, which was scheduled to have accompanied his collaboration with Reading band Machine Gun as a double album. In the event Dawn/Pye released each record separately and, unsure of Cooper’s direction, refused to countenance any further records. Cooper, however, was still under
contract, and the two-year recording hiatus this enforced undoubtedly damaged his career. Disillusioned, he travelled to Spain to become a fisherman, until Tony Hall of the Fresh Air production company invited him back to record Life And Death In Paradise in 1974. The album allowed his bitterness towards the music industry to surface.
Another period of seclusion, this time in Heidelberg, Germany, followed. There he liaised with local actors and poets, and was drawn to the underground avant garde scene. On his return to England he joined Eddie Prevost’s band and also worked with saxophonist Lol Coxhill. 1982’s Live From Papa Madeo saw him return to the blues, this time rooted in the Delta tradition rather than his previous ragtime-inspired approach. Further musical expansion, with the experimental dance project Tristerio System and world
music with Dudu Pukwana, ensued. Truly eclectic, he also flirted with Greek Rembetico and Hawaiian slide guitar music, before forming the Recedents with Coxhill and drummer Roger Turner, and the Uptown Hawaiians with Coxhill, French slide guitarist Cyril Lefebvre, Steve Beresford and Max Eastley.
Cooper has written extensively about the Hawaiian slack key guitar style and is a regular contributor to the UK magazine Folk Roots aka fROOTS.
Now based in Rome, Cooper appears more rarely in England these days, but his tally of over 40 recordings provides as richly varied an output as it is possible to imagine. His work in the new millennium was largely produced on limited edition CD-Rs and released through his own Hipshot label.
Cooper describes his most recent recordings as ‘ambient electronic exotica’.
''THE MACHINE GUN CO. WITH MIKE COOPER''
1972
38:53
1 - Song For Abigail/9:02
2 - The Singing Tree/5:35
3 - Midnight Words/3:30
4 - So Glad (That I Found You)/15:19
5 - Lady Anne/5:15
All Tracks By Cooper
Tim Richardson/Percussion
Geoff Hawkins/Saxophone, Melodica, Pipe (Reed Pipe)
Mike Cooper/Vocals, Acoustic, Bottleneck & Electric Guitars
Les Calvert/Electric Bass On 2
Alan Cook/Electric Piano On 5
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
Mike Cooper's final release for Pye was an acrimonious one. Machine Gun Co. was originally to be a double album, with Places I Know being the first disc. That album was released a full two years earlier, with Machine Gun Company being held in abeyance all the while. The delay put a huge burden on a touring band with no new record to support; they split before the release of Machine Gun Company. Cooper waited out the final two years of his contract and didn't record again until 1975 for the Fresh Air label. It's too bad that Pye didn't have the foresight to issue both albums as one package (a BGO CD-reissue placed them both on one disc in 1998) to reveal the true breadth and dimension of Cooper's musical ability and ambition. There are only five songs on Machine Gun Company. They range from the pastoral, traditional folk of "The Singing Tree"; to the avant-country-reggae lilt of "Song for Abigail," that was as ambitious (at nine-plus minutes) -- if more overtly melodic -- as anything on Tim Buckley's Lorca; to the 15-minute Velvet Underground-meets-Sun Ra/rock/free jazz workout that is "So Glad (That I Found You)." And while these references are largely useless in trying to describe this music, they are significant mapping points for Cooper, who was deeply influenced by all of the aforementioned artists. The album has a rough, raw, organic feel to it that none of his other recordings have; they exist starkly in contrast to the nine songs on the first half (previously known as Places I Know). The free-for-all quality of these recordings; their loose yet defined song structures; and their compositional frameworks, represent for Cooper the opening of a musical world so wide that all boundaries between the music in his subsequent recordings would be erased completely. Machine Gun Company was not simply an experiment that worked; it was a work of art that experimented with the idea of music being one vast universe with song being its poetic and foundational heart. This disc is easily Cooper's greatest musical achievement.
BIOGRAPHY
By ROVI
b. 1943, England.
A singer and guitarist based for most of his years in Reading, Berkshire, England, Cooper was one of the leading lights of the country blues movement in Britain in the 60s. His first bookings came at the Shades cafe, and led to his first recording, Out Of The Shades, an EP for the independent Kennet Records label. By now a major advocate of the blues, he established a popular folk/blues club in Reading and was one of the instigators of the Matchbox label, for which he also recorded. There were even rumours that he turned down an offer to join the Rolling Stones.
Between 1968 and 1974 Cooper appeared on the Pye Records, Dawn and Fresh Air labels, and he also contributed guitar work to records by Ian A. Anderson, Stefan Grossman and Heron. His own solo album debut came in 1969 with Oh Really?, but it was not until the advent of a follow-up collection a year later that he had begun to write his own material. This only gelled fully on the same year’s minor masterpiece, Trout Steel, a visionary mix of blues and free jazz improvisation. The formula was further refined on 1971’s Places I Know, which was scheduled to have accompanied his collaboration with Reading band Machine Gun as a double album. In the event Dawn/Pye released each record separately and, unsure of Cooper’s direction, refused to countenance any further records. Cooper, however, was still under
contract, and the two-year recording hiatus this enforced undoubtedly damaged his career. Disillusioned, he travelled to Spain to become a fisherman, until Tony Hall of the Fresh Air production company invited him back to record Life And Death In Paradise in 1974. The album allowed his bitterness towards the music industry to surface.
Another period of seclusion, this time in Heidelberg, Germany, followed. There he liaised with local actors and poets, and was drawn to the underground avant garde scene. On his return to England he joined Eddie Prevost’s band and also worked with saxophonist Lol Coxhill. 1982’s Live From Papa Madeo saw him return to the blues, this time rooted in the Delta tradition rather than his previous ragtime-inspired approach. Further musical expansion, with the experimental dance project Tristerio System and world
music with Dudu Pukwana, ensued. Truly eclectic, he also flirted with Greek Rembetico and Hawaiian slide guitar music, before forming the Recedents with Coxhill and drummer Roger Turner, and the Uptown Hawaiians with Coxhill, French slide guitarist Cyril Lefebvre, Steve Beresford and Max Eastley.
Cooper has written extensively about the Hawaiian slack key guitar style and is a regular contributor to the UK magazine Folk Roots aka fROOTS.
Now based in Rome, Cooper appears more rarely in England these days, but his tally of over 40 recordings provides as richly varied an output as it is possible to imagine. His work in the new millennium was largely produced on limited edition CD-Rs and released through his own Hipshot label.
Cooper describes his most recent recordings as ‘ambient electronic exotica’.
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