Photo: Al Dunlop/Toronto Star via Getty Images Hogan used to be scared of wrestlers Live in Trondheim, Berlin & Limoges, Vol.Hulk Hogan stands before the crowd at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada before a joust with "Macho Man" Randy Savage, October 1985.Helter Skelter with François-Michel Pesenti.Live Improvisations with Tim Hodgkinson.Attention Span with Bob Ostertag and John Zorn.Live in Prague and Washington with Chris Cutler.Voice of America with Bob Ostertag and Phil Minton.With Friends Like These with Henry Kaiser.Sources: Liner notes, Discogs, Fred Frith discography. Graphic design by Jean-François Denis and Luc Beauchemin.Mastered by Marc Fortin and René Lussier.Live at Kulturwerkstatt, Basel, Switzerland Live at Maison de la Culture Andre Malraux, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France Live at Colegio Mayor San Juan Evangelista, Madrid, Spain it's a guitar-lover's dream come true." Track listing Īll music by the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, except where noted. When they all pick up on an idea and begin extrapolating. He added that the quartet's "real power" is that they have not "forgotten the fun of plugging in an electric guitar for the first time. Hale described Upbeat as part "catchy phrases and speaker-shredding sound". Reviewing the album in Coda magazine, James Hale said Frith, Didkovsky, Stewart and Lussier each have one thing in common: they "share a passion for exploring the sonic possibilities" of the electric guitar. "Speedy Feety" has a "ountry feel", and becomes overly sentimental in "Red Rag", which Barnes described as "a corny melody set against a gauzy, blurred backdrop". Barnes said that, not unexpectedly, the album's sources are difficult to identify, but he felt there is "a lot of the subversion" targeting country and western music. Writing in The Wire, Mike Barnes complimented Frith on the "admirable restraint" he displays in his quartet-as if he "is waiting something to say"-but added that Upbeat "certainly says a great deal". He said they explore the percussive and rhythmic nature of the guitar, and blend noise with folk, jazz and country music to produce an "intriguing CD" of "brilliant effects". Reviewing the album in the Canadian Sunday Herald, Stephen Pedersen called the quartet "a delightfully wild and wooly bunch", who are "superb masters of their instruments and intensely in tune with each other". He wrote that each of the four guitarists demonstrate what can be done with the instrument, and then, as a quartet, "take it to the fourth power". In a review of Upbeat at AllMusic Tom Schulte described the tracks on the album as "angular, mathematical, and extemporaneous".
Reception Professional ratings Review scores Frith's "No Bones" is an adaption of his song "Bones" from Massacre's 1981 album, Killing Time.
The album comprises pieces composed by each of the four members of the quartet, played solo and in the group, plus additional pieces improvised by the quartet. The studio tracks were recorded at Tonstudio Amann in Vienna, Austria, also in November 1997. The live material was drawn from concerts the quartet had performed in Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain in November 1997. It is their second album, after Ayaya Moses (1997), and was released by Canadian record label, Ambiances Magnétiques. Upbeat (also sometimes referred to as UpBeat or Up Beat) is a 1999 live and studio album by the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, an American-based contemporary classical and experimental music guitar quartet comprising Fred Frith, René Lussier, Nick Didkovsky and Mark Stewart.