"A reissue of Derek Bailey's Lot 74, originally released by Incus in 1974. Recorded at a private house in South-East London [Martin Davidson], the side-long title track is a masterwork: a twenty-two-minute, starkly personal, freely expressive, itchily searching re-casting of orders of rhythm and sound into a new, quicksilver kind of affective and musical polyphony.

Never mind the guitarist's championing of "non-idiomatic improvisation", the poet Peter Riley gets the ball rolling in his identification of the various hauntings of Bailey's playing at this time: "mandolins & balalaikas strumming in the distance, George Forby's banjo, Leadbelly's steel 12-string, koto, lute, classical guitar... and others quite outside the field of the plucked string."

The five pieces on side two were recorded back home in Hackney around the same time -- with the exception of "Improvisation 104(b)", from the year before (and issued by Incus in its TAPS series of mini reel-to-reel tapes) -- opening with ventriloquized guitar feedback, and taking in some cod banter about colleagues like Mervyn Parker, Siegfried Brotzmann, and Harry Bentink. Crucial."-Honest Jons Records

"Lot 74 was originally issued as Incus 12 in 1974, and was only the fourth solo recording Derek Bailey released, after the two volumes of Solo Guitar and the reel-to-reel tape release TAPS. Little of the solo language of the consummate free improviser had yet been documented at the time, and to those mail ordering copies of the LP it must have been a revelation - or a conundrum.

The album is no less surprising today. Before long, Bailey would refine his playing to rely primarily on plectrum technique with harmonics and muted strings, but in the early '70s there was a different sense of adventurousness about him. The "19 string (approx) guitar" isn't heard here, but his deft stereo playing is. Splitting the signal from his electric guitar, Bailey played with two amps and two volume pedals, allowing him to create distinct left and right fields. That, of course, is just a tool, however, and it's Bailey's contrary ingenuity that makes the panned plucking work.

The 22-minute title track that opens the disc is all of what makes his solo playing so great. It's lyrical, more in a spoken than sung way. It moves forward with rationale, is sometimes light but never quite goes for a joke. Cliché though it may be to say, Bailey is a storyteller: linear and engaging. In hindsight, what would have been called "side two" back in the day is even more of a shocker. The brief "Together" opens the side, an intense blur of singing, or whooping in any event accompanied by feedback (he seems to be singing into the guitar pickup to get overtones and distortion). "Pain in the Chest?" is built of shards emanating from (seemingly again) prepared strings. "Planks" is a sort of spidery ballad, which is followed by a spoken piece called "In Joke (take 2)." Bailey's so-called "chats" became better known (and more frequently recorded) in later years, but this is an early example of his conversational cacophony: him ruminating cheekily on the early days (less than a decade prior at the time) of free improvisation, presaging the Charlie Appleyard stories he would later record. Hearing Bailey accompany himself - speaking while drowning himself out with rigid, angular guitar lines - is one of the best keys to unlocking his enigmatic music. The disc closes with another rich amplified piece (curiously this one gets titled "Improvisation").

As his approach to playing grew increasingly singular, his sonic palate became less of a rainbow. Arguably the depth of his musicianship also grew, Lot 74 is rare in his catalogue as a series of attempts and for the resultant diversity."-Kurt Gottschalk, The Squid's Ear

All recordings spring 1974 except "Improvisation 104(b). Recording by Bob Woolford and Martin Davidson recorded at Martin Davidson's house in South-East London. Originally released on vinyl as Incus LP 12.

Derek Bailey-guitar

This album has been reviewed on our magazine:


The Squid's Ear!