Slapp Happy

Avant-pop cult favorites Slapp Happy formed in Hamburg, Germany in 1972; there vocalist <a href="spotify:artist:61YthmX9Hi1gyqVl0MGEy2">Dagmar Krause</a>, a veteran of the folk group the City Preachers, first met British experimental composer <a href="spotify:artist:4uJt75N8u4RRQQ6hKYYIaS">Anthony Moore</a>, who had previously issued a pair of solo LPs, Pieces from the Cloudland Ballroom and Secrets of the Blue Bag, on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Polydor%22">Polydor</a>. When the label rejected a third <a href="spotify:artist:4uJt75N8u4RRQQ6hKYYIaS">Moore</a> record, he instead proposed a pop project, recruiting <a href="spotify:artist:28lKe43O97LzTtxR2qa5T7">Krause</a> and New York-born guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:0nkcgoH1u2GgX3a6v2tC1t">Peter Blegvad</a> to form Slapp Happy; recorded with input from members of the famed Krautrock band <a href="spotify:artist:4yBBNmdvVaoPEnr2lt14q7">Faust</a>, 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, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Polydor%22">Polydor</a> assented to a follow-up, with Slapp Happy soon convening to record Casablanca Moon; the label rejected the album, however, and upon landing at <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Virgin%22">Virgin</a>, 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 <a href="spotify:artist:6P3Zlv61YNe6DHVZhFj8oL">Henry Cow</a> to record a pair of collaborative LPs, Desperate Straights and In Praise of Learning; creative tensions then forced <a href="spotify:artist:4uJt75N8u4RRQQ6hKYYIaS">Moore</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:0nkcgoH1u2GgX3a6v2tC1t">Blegvad</a> to exit the project, although <a href="spotify:artist:28lKe43O97LzTtxR2qa5T7">Krause</a> continued singing with <a href="spotify:artist:6P3Zlv61YNe6DHVZhFj8oL">Henry Cow</a> though their 1980 dissolution. In the meantime, both <a href="spotify:artist:4uJt75N8u4RRQQ6hKYYIaS">Moore</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:0nkcgoH1u2GgX3a6v2tC1t">Blegvad</a> pursued solo careers, although in 1982 they reunited with <a href="spotify:artist:61YthmX9Hi1gyqVl0MGEy2">Krause </a>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, Ça Va, followed in 1998. Camera was issued two years later. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi