CASSIBER – Man Or Monkey (riskant ‎– 6.28624-01-02 / 2LP-1982)

Label: riskant ‎– 6.28624-01, riskant ‎– 6.28624-02

Format: 2 × Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Album, Reissue, DMM

Country: Germany / Released: 1982

Style: Art Rock, Free Improvisation, Experimental, Free Jazz

Recorded 5-16 August 1982 at Sunrise Studios, Kirchberg.

Artwork [Picture] – Gabriele Hamm

Artwork By [Cover] – B.E.C.K.

Recorded By – Etienne Conod (tracks: A1 to B3, D2)

Mixed By – Etienne Conod (tracks: D1, D3), Robert Vogel (tracks: C)

Producer – Wolfgang Hamm

All songs and instrumental pieces were improvised.

This is the TELDEC pressed DMM cut.

Matrix / Runout (Side A): 6.28624-01-1

Matrix / Runout (Side B): 6.28624-01-2

Matrix / Runout (Side C): 6.28624-02-1

Matrix / Runout (Side D): 6.28624-02-2

side 1:

A1 - Not Me ............................................................................................................... 3:34

A2 - Red Shadow ...................................................................................................... 3:43

A3 - Chor Der Gefangenen (The Prisoner Chorus) ................................................... 4:46

side 2:

B1 - Our Colourful Culture ......................................................................................... 3:04

B2 - O Cure Me ......................................................................................................... 5:53

B3 - This Core ........................................................................................................... 4:20

side 3:

C  -  Man Or Monkey ............................................................................................... 16:38

side 4:

D1 - Django Vergibt ................................................................................................... 3:09

D2 - Die Verunreinigung Des Flusses Ist Gerade Noch Erträglich ............................ 6:38

D3 - Sag Mir Wo Die Blumen Sind (Where Have All Flowers Gone) ........................ 2:41

Personnel:

Alfred Harth – alto / tenor sax, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, bass clarinet, cello [violincello]

Heiner Goebbels – piano, synthesizer, organ, violin [chinese], guitar, acoustic guitar, bass

Christoph Anders – vocals, synthesizer [korg], guitar, tenor sax, tape [prepared cassettes],                                 violin, percussion [metalsheets]

Chris Cutler – drums, whistle, noises, performer [objects], text

Peter Prochir – drums, percussion (tracks: B1)

"Man or Monkey" was Cassiber's first album. It was released in 1982 on the German label Riskant as a set of two 45 rpm LPs -- a format that turned it into a pricy collector's item.

“Man or Monkey” is a plain masterpiece using pre-composed structures as well as free improvisation (with emphasis on the latter).

For this first effort, Christoph Anders, Chris Cutler, Heiner Goebbels, and Alfred 23 Harth entered the studio with only a handful of the drummer's lyrics and a few melodic ideas. They improvised, letting structures and arrangements develop by themselves, so to speak, and singer Anders threw in a text when he felt it appropriate.

Christoph Anders rather barks and shouts than sings his rudimentary lyrics, it sounds as if he was panicking. Alfred Harth is in charge of the free jazz part, while Goebbels adds serious new music piano clusters. The whole thing is driven by Cutler’s energetic punk/art rock explosions. In their best moments Cassiber sounds as if a free jazz band is jamming with German kraut rock legend Can.

Side A presents three short improvised songs. Lyrics are more declamated than sung and the musical flooring is loosely rhythmical but very intense ("Red Shadow" is a highlight). Side B focuses on more prepared songs and Anders' singing. The festive music of "Our Colourful Culture" creates a disgusting contrast with the somber lyrics ("I came from the country/Arriba! Arriba!/They were killing my family/Ha ha ha ha"). "O Cure Me" sets the lyrics from one of Bach's cantatas against with its melodic saxophone line and its mainstream keyboard sounds, which they immediately alienated by disharmonic chords, honks, the strange vocals and an angular violin. Both of these pieces would remain in the group's live sets until the end ten years later.

Side C contains the 16-minute free improvisation "Man or Monkey" and presents a world which is completely apart at the seams, a total chaos illustrated by a collage of horror organ parts, strange speech samples, lost saxophones and trombones, dissonant guitar splinters and junkyard percussion – even from today’s point of view a very ambitious and visionary track... Other songs on D side are based on allusions to the music of Robert Wyatt (“Die Verunreinigung des Flusses ist gerade noch erträglich”) and contains nice percussion work.

To quote Chris Cutler: “Man or Monkey presents Cassiber as a band which improvises with prepared texts and an intention to arrive at coherent structures.”

(Revew By Martin Schray)

If you find it, buy this album!