Fell + Morris

The impressive fruit of the quartet's 1998 UK tour. An intriguing amalgam that spits fire.

---------- selected press quotes ----------

"Spontaneous music of a scorching and unrelenting intensity . . . . . conversational music of the most intuitive eloquence . . . . . unquenchable energy . . . . . There probably isn't such a thing as state-of-the-art free music, but as a term of convenient endearment, it's close enough." John Fordham THE GUARDIAN

"Their interplay is absolutely explosive . . . . . blistering fingerwork from Joe Morris." Mark Russell MIXING IT, BBC RADIO 3

"Exemplary studio sound as England's most adept and creative trio encounter the nouveau-guitar wizard from Sharon, Massachusetts. The rhythm players dive into a bluesy, groovy mesh of bass/guitar twangs, tinder which Alan Wilkinson's vocalised sax fumes and ignites Brötzmania with added humour and colouration. Joe Morris's notes fly like pips squeezed from an orange, his native lyricism stressed into steel by the surrounding tensions. Bows And Buttons closes with a savage baritone outburst that balances what's preceded with staggering aesthetic precision. A:1*" Ben Watson HIFI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW

"Joe Morris is an extremely useful supplement to the fearsome trio, and his style is earthed to a number of worthy contacts, including Derek Bailey himself. His babbling, short-stopped, vinegary guitar, dextrously creating contrapuntal effects, threads through the established interplay of the other three, thickening the weave or throwing shards of brightness into densely textured corners. Fell and Hession bowl along like a clump of tensile steel tumbleweed, drawing more tender species in its wake or bouncing impudently over obstacles. Throughout, Fell is powerfully rhythmic, yet takes good care of the harmonic grounding as the others swirl round him like gimlet eyed mariners round the vortex of some cosmic plughole. Altogether splendid stuff." Barry Witherden THE WIRE

"Registered Firm is a brilliant CD. Morris's guitar developed a quality - febrile, stinging, a kind of psycho-psychedelic digitatis - that he'd hinted at before, but never quite achieved. The record works like a stress-map of different musical methodologies: meeting, bruising each other, talking. Spaceships Are Crap, a skittering superfast fourway dialogue, has a mutual sense of rhythm that takes the breath away." Ben Watson SIGNAL TO NOISE

to read more reviews of this recording, click here: www.brucesfingers.co.uk/catalogue/cd33reviews.html

Tracklist

1.	Registered Firm	1:25

2.	Bows And Buttons	13:15

Credits

released March 1, 1999

Alan Wilkinson: alto sax, baritone sax
Joe Morris: guitar
Simon H. Fell: double bass
Paul Hession: drumset

1998 (53 mins.) in jewel box
© Incus 1999*

full track listing:
1. Registered Firm [1:25]
2. Bows And Buttons [13:15]
3. Spaceships Are Crap [4:30]
4. "You Do Mean Groucho Marx, Don't You?" [1:57]
5. The Delius Myth [14:07]
6. "If I've Offended Anyone, I Apologize" [12:42]
7. Piece Of Fish [6:17]

*special thanks to Karen Brookman-Bailey for permitting us to offer this album for download

License