01	Casablanca Moon						02:49
	02	Me and Parvati						03:25
	03	Half Way There						03:18
	04	Michelangelo						02:36
	05	Dawn						03:21
	06	Mr. Rainbow						03:52
	07	The Secret						03:31
	08	A Little Something						04:35
	09	The Drum						03:35
	10	Haiku						03:05
	11	Slow Moon's Rose						02:55
	12	Some Questions About Hat						01:49
	13	The Owl						02:14
	14	A Worm is at Work						01:52
	15	Bad Alchemy						03:06
	16	Europa						02:48
	17	Desperate Straights						04:14
	18	Riding Tigers						01:43
	19	Apes in Capes						02:14
	20	Strayed						01:53
	21	Giants						01:57
	22	Extract from the Messiah						01:48
	23	In the Sickbay						02:08
	24	Caucasian Lullaby						08:20

Casablanca Moon/Desperate Straights
Date of Release Dec 28, 1999

Slapp Happy (Casablanca Moon)
Date of Release 1974 (release)

Henry Lowther - Trumpet
Dagmar Krause - Piano, Vocals
Peter Blegvad - Clarinet, Guitar, Vocals
Jeremy Baines - Bassoon
Clem Cattini - Drums
Claire Deniz - Cello
Andy Leggett - Jug
Geoff Leigh - Wind
Anthony Moore - Keyboards, Vocals
Jean Hervй Peron - Bass
Graham Preskett - Mandolin, Violin
Kesh Sathie - Percussion
Mark Singer - Drums
Eddie Sparrow - Drums
Dave Wintour - Bass
Roger Wootton - Vocals
Nick Worters - Bass

1974 LP Virgin 2014

CASABLANCA MOON
"BLATANT ECCENTRICS GET RECORD DEAL" (Headline in N.M.E, - June 8, 1974) Welcome to the strange world of Slapp Happy. Listening to this CD even once, instantly confers on the listener honorary membership in one of the most exclusive "cult followings" in the history of pop music. This CD contains Slapp Happy's second and third albums - "Casablanca Moon" ('73), and "Desperate Straights" (74). Polydor (Germany) had released our debut, in a few remote territories, two years previously. It was called "Sort Of" -which summed up our attitude pretty well. We recorded it near Hamburg, in Faust's communal studio. We considered it a subversive act to have suckered Polydor into paying us to make a pop record. Anthony and I thought of ourselves as imposters, but with the cocky insecurity of youth, we were sure we could come up with something that listeners might mistake for pop music. That it worked had a lot to do with Dagmar's weird and wonderful voice. She hadn't sung since mysteriously losing said voice two years before - when she heard Anthony and me trying to sing she suddenly recovered.
Our producer was one Uwe Nettlebeck, a maverick critic and bon viveur. He encouraged us to develop the music we called "Naive Rock, the Douannier Rousseau sound."
"Casablanca Moon" was recorded with a new producer (Steve Morse), and various session players. It's an eccentric record. Our ambivalence towards pop music expresses itself in-a kind of sinister whimsy. Slapp Happy's trademark "charm" saves the songs from pastiche. I once heard a stranger whistling "The Secret" in a New York City Health Club shower ten years after this record was deleted. It's a catchy tune.


Desperate Straights
Date of Release 1975 (release)

AMG EXPERT REVIEW: A surprising team up at the time of its release (1975), Desperate Straights is a surprisingly melodic album, light on the art school angst and heavy on the playfulness, which one would hardly expect from such determined socialists as these. But here it is: "Some Questions About Hats" sounds like a Kurt Weill outtake, "A Worm Is at Work" gallops along with a sweet tune. Dagmar Krause remains restrained and not given to flights of horrible fancy. "Strayed" is reminiscient of Kevin Ayers's brand of art rock, and most of the songs clock in under two minutes. But never fear: the album ends on the eight minute "Caucasian Lullaby," a minimal woodwind piece that suddenly bursts into one last jab of Krausian despair. - Ted Mills
DESPERATE STRAIGHTS
Influenced by Henry Cow, whom we'd been impressed by live, we cut "Europa" as a single. It was a turning point, probably the first time we'd given our "all" as composers and performers.
I think "Desperate Straights" holds up well, if you ignore the last track. Dagmar's music for "In the Sickbay" makes me wish she'd written more. The Henry Cow/Slapp Happy alliance made another album together, "In Praise of Learning", ('75). and then broke up, fairly acrimoniously. Anthony quit and I was actually fired - ("aah, the Cow is fulla bull" - P.B., '75). Dagmar stayed to explore the new music and life on the road In various line-ups of Henry Cow culminating in the Art Bears at the end of the decade. All three of us have continued as solo acts with several records between us. At the time of writing, Slapp Happy have only played live once, (at the I.C.A. in London, in 1982, wearing luminous fish masks and singing "Everybody's Slimmin', Even Men and Woman", the single we had out on our own label, Half Cat records). But Slapp Happy refuses to lie down and die. Various artists, on both sides of the Atlantic, do us the honour of occasionally "covering" one of our tunes. And, in 1991, our most ambitious project to date, Anthony, Dagmar and I collaborated on an hour-long "opera" commissioned by Channel four, called "Camera", which is due for broadcast, late '93. Sometimes I wish we'd made "Teach Yourself Slapp Happy", (to have been based on the popular "Teach Yourself" manuals). Sometimes I'm glad we didn't. Oh, and the concept album we were planning to follow "Desperate Straights" with: "Slapp Happy Salutes the United Nations", featuring us slaughtering various ethnic musics.

Henry Cow - Group
Dagmar Krause - Piano, Vocals
Peter Blegvad - Clarinet, Guitar, Vocals
John Greaves - Bass, Piano
Lindsay Cooper - Wind
Mongezi Feza - Trumpet
Muchsin Campbell - Horn
Nick Evans - Trombone
Fred Frith - Guitar, Violin
Tim Hodgkinson - Clarinet, Piano
Geoff Leigh - Wind
Pierre Moerlen - Percussion
Anthony Moore - Keyboards, Vocals

1974 LP Virgin 2024


Avant-pop cult favorites Slapp Happy formed in Hamburg, Germany in 1972; there vocalist Dagmar Krause, a veteran of the folk group the City Preachers, first met British experimental composer Anthony Moore, who had previously issued a pair of solo LPs, Pieces of the Cloudland Ballroom and Secrets of the Blue Bag, on Polydor. When the label rejected a third Moore record, he instead proposed a pop project, recruiting Krause and New York-born guitarist Peter Blegvad to form Slapp Happy; recorded with input from members of the famed Krautrock band Faust, the trio issued their debut album Sort of... in 1972, its commercial prospects severely limited as a result of the band's refusal to perform live. Still, Polydor assented to a follow-up, with Slapp Happy soon convening to record Casablanca Moon; the label rejected the album, however, and upon landing at Virgin the trio re-recorded the disc in its entirety, releasing it as a self-titled effort in 1974. Slapp Happy next banded together with the like-minded art-rock outfit Henry Cow to record a pair of collaborative LPs, Desperate Straights and In Praise of Learning; creative tensions then forced Moore and Blegvad to exit the project, although Krause continued singing with Henry Cow though their 1980 dissolution. In the meantime both Moore and Blegvad pursued solo careers, although in 1982 they reunited with Krause to record a new Slapp Happy single, "Everybody's Slimmin'," followed by their first-ever live appearance at London's ICA. All three again collaborated in 1991 on Camera, a television opera commissioned by the BBC and broadcast two years later; a new Slapp Happy studio album, Зa Va, followed in 1998. Camera was issued two years later. - Jason Ankeny

1. Casablanca Moon (Blegvad/Moore) - 2:49
2. Me and Paravati (Blegvad/Moore) - 3:25
3. Half Way There (Blegvad) - 3:18
4. Michaelangelo (Blegvad/Moore) - 2:36
5. Dawn (Blegvad/Moore) - 3:21
6. Me Rainbow (Blegvad) - 3:52
7. The Secret (Blegvad/Moore) - 3:31
8. A Little Something (Blegvad) - 4:35
9. The Drum (Blegvad/Moore) - 3:35
10. Haiku (Blegvad/Moore) - 3:05
11. Slow Moon's Rose (Moore) - 2:55
12. Some Question About Hats (Blegvad/Moore) - 1:49
13. The Owl (Moore) - 2:14
14. A Worm Is at Work (Blegvad/Moore) - 1:52
15. Bad Alchemy (Blegvad/Greaves) - 3:06
16. Europa (Blegvad/Moore) - 2:48
17. Desperate Straights (Moore) - 4:14
18. Riding Tigers (Blegvad) - 1:43
19. Apes in Capes (Moore) - 2:14
20. Strayed (Blegvad) - 1:53
21. Giants (Blegvad/Moore) - 1:57
22. Extract from the Messiah (Blegvad/Handel) - 1:48
23. In the Sickbay (Blegvad/Dagmar) - 2:08
24. Caucasian Lullaby (Cutler/Moore) - 8:20