Genre-Wise: An Exhibition of Obscure Music: Rock in Opposition

Against Conformity, Against Simplicity, Against The Industry

By Jakub Brzozowski

Hello dear readers and welcome to my column! I am your columnist, guide and the custodian of (almost) forgotten music. This column is a trip to the museum of sounds that have somewhat obscured over the years, due to their niche and inaccessible nature. No worries, however, since your curator is here to shed some light on the darker corners of the annals of music. The agenda is simple: one trip (column article) = one subgenre, that has vanished from  the collective memory of music nerds, first up–RIO. Not De Janeiro, but Rock In Opposition.

What is Rock in Opposition? In short, it’s a cluster of avant-garde prog rock bands who were unable to find their spot in the music landscape of the late 70s – too experimental for prog rockers, too complex for punks. As a result they decided to unite under a name, set up a record label, organise a festival, and tour Europe. At least for a short while, that worked. While, in nature, this was an international movement, with the vast majority of the bands hailing from continental Europe, the story of Rock in Opposition is inevitably connected to the movement’s originators and most vocal proponents: the English band Henry Cow. So it’s time to get right back to the beginning…

In 1968, in a blues club at the University of Cambridge, after a particularly dense jam session, Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson formed a band – they called themselves Henry Cow. They managed to assemble an early line up and support one of the early iterations of Pink Floyd (still with Syd Barrett). Already at that point, the band was taking influences from experimental artists such as Frank Zappa, his counterparts — Captain Beefheart, or Soft Machine, and by extension — the whole Canterbury Scene. It wasn’t, however, until 1973, when these influences (along with experimental classical music and free jazz) were fully fleshed out on Henry Cow’s debut album—The LegEnd of Henry Cow, released via Virgin Music. This detail is far more important for our story than you might think. This is mainly because of two factors: the band was virtually ignored by the music press in their early years. It was only a session with the legendary radio host John Peel (a crucial figure in his own right!) that secured them a deal with Virgin Records. Secondly, Henry Cow’s political beliefs were clear — socialism. They never abstained from expressing their anti-capitalist views clearly (e.g. the closing track on their debut album, ‘Nine Funerals of the Citizen King’, is clearly influenced by Marx and Brecht). As a result they earned themselves an infamous reputation, which coupled with their uncompromising music, and neglect from their record label meant that their second and third LPs: Unrest and In Praise of Learning, were largely ignored.

Needless to say then, that Henry Cow managed to find little to no success in the United Kingdom. Hence they spent most of the early years touring continental Europe, where increasingly experimental music seemed to have a more fertile ground. During their tours in the years 1975-1977 they encountered a couple of bands who shared their experimental vision, but were obscure outside of their home countries. Their point of entry was meeting the Italian experimental progressive folk band, Stormy Six. Simultaneously, they encountered members of the PCI (Italian Communist Party), who enabled them to get connections and ultimately tour Europe as they had planned. Over the next two years they met the following bands: Univers Zero (Belgium), Etron Fon Leloublan (France), as well as Samla Mammas Mamman (Sweden). These meetings were crucial in the next few years, but first Henry Cow returned to the UK and…

Unsurprisingly, both them and their record company were deeply unsatisfied with their partnership. Virgin, because Henry Cow was bringing no profits. Henry Cow, because they were unpromoted and after their European ventures Henry Cow saw that they could function on their own, without the mainstream support networks provided by record companies. And so the contract was cancelled over the refusal to grant them studio time. At the same time the band’s singer,Dagmar Krause, had seen her health seriously deteriorate, so they were unable to tour. To top that off the creative differences started to kick in: half of the band preferred more accessible, song-oriented material, while the other half wanted to push in the instrumental improvisational direction. Ultimately, they decided to split their creative output: the more accessible songs were released under Art Bears moniker, while the usual jazzy improvs were to become Henry Cow’s last album — Western Culture. And with that Henry Cow disbanded in early 1978.

This, however, isn’t the end of our story. This is the beginning of the short lived RIO movement that this article is all about. The band’s manager Nick Hobbs, decided to utilise the remaining time (Henry Cow were still busy recording their swan song) and the opportunities that touring in Europe brought to them. Hence, he invited the aforementioned bands to play at a festival he organised in London. All of the bands were even less popular than Henry Cow, so the bill was promoted under the “Rock in Opposition: FIVE ROCK GROUPS THE RECORD COMPANIES DON’T WANT YOU TO HEAR” slogan. Pretentious? Yes, but ultimately effective. The festival took place in The New London Theatre on the 12th of March 1978 and while not a massive success (they apparently lost money), there was a good turnout (450 people) and some press coverage. This prompted these bands to consolidate their efforts into a collective, and so Rock in Opposition was born.

The movement was constituted into an organisation, of sorts, on the 8th of December 1978 in Sunrise Studios (Henry Cow’s recording base) in Switzerland. At that point, as mentioned earlier, Henry Cow had already disbanded. Nonetheless, their epigons Art Bears, along with French Art Zoyd and Belgian Aksak Maboul were accepted into the ranks of the organisation that still remained a closed collective. A charter was produced, citing “musical excellence”, “working outside of the music business” and having “a social commitment to Rock.” 

The next effort was organising a tour of the festival — shows were planned in: Sweden, Italy, France, and Belgium. All of the festivals, except the French one, happened according to plan. The one in Milan even lasted for a whole week! Unfortunately, in the midst of these concerts the bands stopped agreeing on a common creative vision and while the bands still helped each other out, the initial spirit of a collective was practically lost. Unsurprisingly, after the last edition of the Rock In Opposition Festival in November 1980, the movement had naturally dissolved.

Amid all of that, one of the Henry Cow’s members, Chris Cutler, set up a record label called Recommended Records (RēR). It was dedicated to releasing the projects of RIO bands and other similar groups that were deemed worthy of recognition and remains a tangible relic of the legacy of RIO.

After the dissolution of the movement every band seemed to walk its own way, but all of them retained the unorthodox nature that bonded the lot in the first place. There are way too many projects to list them in this article (ProgArchives is a great resource for those interested), but I think it’s suffice to say that some of the bands simply ended their career (Samla Mammas Manna), while, on the contrary Henry Cow’s central figure – Fred Frith remained active and went on to pioneer jazzgrind with the New York’s downtown music legend: John Zorn (among other projects).

After reading all of this history you might wonder: “what is the RIO music itself all about?” One thing that always seemed very exciting to me about Rock in Opposition is that each of the bands within the movement managed to keep its unique vision within the collective and beyond. With highly experimental bands described in this article, one could easily imagine that they’re either as eclectic as humanly possible with an agenda of shooting a dozen birds with one stone, or they’re just copycats of each other. Nothing could be less true. While each of the bands share common characteristics, like the use of string and brass instruments to provide complex and dissonant melodies, strong emphasis on instrumentation and instrumental passages, heavy reliance on odd time signatures, and rhythmic complexity, each one of them brings in unique elements to their music.

Henry Cow is the one closest to “conventional” jazz rock, drawing heavily on the jazz fusion of its era, while still keeping the avant-garde edge with Dada and surrealist influences. Samla Mammas Manna was a mixture of Frank Zappa’s complexity,  bizarre psychedelic atmosphere, and Swedish folk music. Univers Zero is a mixture of chamber music, dissonant melodicism and atmosphere, evoking true horror. Stormy Six is more of a folk than a prog band, bringing a perfect blend of the two, in the vein of Comus. Etron Fou Leloublan mixes the maniacal jazz of their countrymen Magma, along with some post punk elements. Art Zoyd is the most classically symphonic group, whose music I personally find the most illustrative. Aksak Maboul combines the weirdness of Henry Cow with the dreadful atmosphere of Univers Zero’s second album (Heresie), which amounts to a wholly unique atmosphere. Finally, Art Bears is a more song oriented version of Henry Cow, putting some more emphasis on musique concrete and noisy aspects of the original band.

Another fascinating thing about Rock in Opposition’s existence is its place within its era. If you’re even mildly acquainted with the history of rock, then you certainly associate the years 1977-79 with the so-called punk revolution. Its immediate consequence was effectively rendering all the prog rock excess of the decade obsolete. But here’s the thing, Rock in Opposition doesn’t strictly belong in either category: rebellious simplistic punk rock or overblown theatrical prog. These groups (Henry Cow most certainly) seem to occupy a sweet spot between the two movements, not leaning into either too much: prog rock’s quirkiness or punk rock’s primitivism. At the same time, these bands seem to be totally in opposition (pun intended) to either, asserting their own unique artistic proposition as a cure to the maladies of commercial rock. RIO bands could be described as prog bands with a punk attitude, which seems to me the most accurate description of this collective. Although it might seem contrary, RIO bands do indeed share some similarities with punk. For example, aside from the neoprog movement (which I’m not a big fan of) and King Crimson’s 1980s records (which I’m a big fan of), Rock in Opposition bands are the only ones who have managed to embrace the post punk of the early 1980s and adjust their sound to the new paradigm without compromising their earlier identity.

In the 21st century RIO, as a musical genre, experienced retroactive recognition. Many of the bands either reunited (Univers Zero, Aksak Maboul) or some members performed together live (Art Bears). Predictably, reunion festivals were also organised. The bands that performed were a mix of old-school RIO bands and also bands that carried the torch of the collective’s approach to the music. Some of the noteworthy ones are: Zao, Guapo, Mats/Morgan, The Muffins, Caspar Brötzmann Massaker (the son of the pioneer of European free jazz — Peter Brötzmann), and many others. While the last edition took place in 2017, RIO’s legacy continues, as bands like Jaga Jazzist, PoiL, or miRthkon still take inspiration from this left-field conglomerate of bands. Rock in Opposition’s legacy also continues in my headphones and I hope that after reading this article it will also in yours.

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As an appendix to this article, I compiled a list of bands officially classified as ‘Rock in Opposition’, as well as a short list of essential albums to help you to get into the genre.

Those who performed during the initial London festival in 1978:

1.      Henry Cow (England)

2.      Univers Zero (Belgium)

3.      Etron Fou Leloublan (France)

4.      Samla Mammas Manna (Sweden)

5.      Stormy Six (Italy)

Those who performed in further iterations:

1.      Art Zoyd (France)

2.      Art Bears (England — effectively a continuation of Henry Cow)

3.      Aksak Maboul (Belgium)

A list of recommended records as an introduction to RIO

Henry Cow – The LegEnd of Henry Cow

Even though this is very much an avant-garde rock record, and furthermore it’s the cornerstone of Rock in Opposition, I’d still argue for treating it like a jazz album. Except for the last song, this is a purely instrumental experimental jazz rock record that will make you question your notion of what is possible on a guitar or a saxophone.

Samla Mammas Manna – Måltid

The most bizarre and psychedelic of the RIO bands, Samla Mammas Manna still seems to be entrenched in the spirit of late 60s psychedelia. Similarly to Henry Cow this album contains long instrumental passages with complex motifs and improvisational forays. At the same time, however, it does contain quite a few more traditional songs (albeit with that psychedelic quirkiness, which you may need to get used to). A good record for getting acquainted with the movement’s tendencies, while still not feeling overwhelmed by experimentation.

Univers Zero – Heresie

Probably the most difficult record on this list to get yourself into, but absolutely worth trying. Purely instrumental, Univers Zero feels like the most solemn of the bands – they mostly take inspirations from classical composers like: Carl Orff, Bela Bartok and Igor Stravinsky, or jazz experimentalists: (late era) Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, or Charles Mingus. This feels like a session of conducted improvisation with complex and dissonant melodies at its centre. The results are frankly ominous. The album, much like its cover art, is quite bleak and in a way very Lovecraftian. A tough, but rewarding listen.

Stormy Six – L’Apprendista

Something a bit more accessible (relatively) now for a change. Stormy Six is the most folky of the bunch. This album is a transition record, the one which could be best affiliated with the avant-garde spirit of the movement. The folk touches of the band’s first few albums are still present, though they give way to more experimental structures. Echoes of first two Henry Cow albums, Univers Zero, their fellow countrymen Area and the French band Magma can all be heard, while not making the album too daunting of a listen.

Various Artists – Recommended Records Sampler

Most certainly the most eclectic record on the list, mostly because it’s a compilation. This is a good taste of all of the RIO bands, since the compilation contains at least a track of all of them (Etron Fou Leloublan being the only exception). Among that there are a couple of other bands presenting similar sounds, that can help you get immersed: krautrock legends Faust, avant-proggers from The Muffins, notorious experimentalists The Residents, Canterbury scene legend Robert Wyatt, and one of the most experimental post punk bands — This Heat.

Art Bears—The World As It Is Today

And to finish this short list is the last breath of Henry Cow: the band consists of three members of Henry Cow. Art Bears is practically a more song-oriented version of Henry Cow, but this album especially keeps to the experimental spirit of the original band. Elements of noise rock and UK industrial can be vaguely traced, but most importantly: this album, along with the whole Art Bears catalogue, contains a lot of post-punk influences, making this a symbolic end to the Rock in Opposition as a purely separate movement.

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If any of the records scratched the itch, then I’d recommend checking out the discographies of the other bands mentioned in the article. If that is not enough, then anything labelled as: avant-prog (especially from the Benelux countries), zeuhl, Canterbury Scene, brutal prog (if you’re ready for something more intense), John Zorn’s body of work, and more avant-garde records by Frank Zappa (Uncle Meat comes to mind), some of which might be covered in the future issues of this column :)