The Bevis Frond-Sprawl (1994)

 

Artist: The Bevis Frond

Title: Sprawl

Label: Woronzow

Format: CD

Cat #: WOO 022CD

Year of Release: 1994

Country and Year of Edition Issue: UK 1994

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 7/27/21

Sell Price: $7.99.

Discogs Last Sold: 5/22/21 VG+/VG+  $6.99

Low:$5.95

Median: $7.01

Average: $7.57

High: $10.71

Current low price: $5.95

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 18

Have/Want: 184/24

Where Sold:Dunkirk, NY

Time it took to sell: 10 years

Where and When Bought: Kims on St Marks NYC new import $22.99 roughly

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A-

Sad To See It Go: No

The first CD edition of Sprawl, while certainly lengthy maxing out a single CD, is a bit less sprawling than the original vinyl double album and the recent remaster Fire put out and is now streaming.  When this came out, I snatched the import CD up for more than $20, but this somehow was the least committed to my memory of his 90's releases.

As usual, all it takes is a bit of time to get through the dense set of songs.  This time around I gave the CD a listen, then streamed the reissue all the way through.  As I'm writing this, I'm giving the tracks from the original CD yet another listen, as befitting Nick Saloman, the singular most important musician in all of music for the past 40 years. 

This one is self recordings and Saloman plays everything except for the "God Speed You To Earth" style "Right On (Hippie Dream)" in it's 22 minute splendor.  This was the only song I instantly remembered over a quarter century on, but I'm starting to get a handle on the rest. Future bassman in crime Adrian Shaw adds some vocals here.

"Awake!" is another epic on the record and it opens the streaming version, but is found on the second track of the record everywhere else.  I think this is a screw up because of segueway of the third track, Innerwheel, a "bhanga-organ" instrumental is now far away at track 11 on streamland.  Then I looked at the CD track listing and it didn't make the abridged cut.   It's confusing and this maybe means that the record should be listened to on the vinyl edition, to undergo the task of having any sort of commentary on it.  The reality is my commentary is not so much needed here, as it is only going to be separating the major works from the merely great.  I think if you buy his new album in September, there is a good chance a pandemic recorded double will join the ranks of the top end, as no signs of letting up in quality are apparent from the last couple releases.

When Rubric was happening in the early aughts, I was attempting to do a reissue series along the lines of what Fire is doing now on a more limited budget.   We made it through the first 6 with bonus tracks and restored CD's and issued Valedictory Songs and What Did For The Dinosaurs as part of our deal for the US.  Once we merged with Tee Pee, the focus was on getting Hit Squad with New River Head, London Stone and Bevis Through The Looking Glass, and I was out the door shortly thereafter.  Mid 90's titles like It Just is, Sprawl and Superseeder would just have to wait 20 years for somebody with bigger pockets to do these records justice. 

Still there is something to be said about Woronzow recording and releasing at home.   It's an outlier of reality, where the talent finds it's audience by happy accident, as the Miasma legend has it.

Everything can be timeless if you give it enough time.