A new release of old material from this all-star group was released a few months back.
Henry Kaiser is known here as a fine guitarist and composer who has often demonstrated a keen interest in the music of Captain Beefheart. He has recorded several cover versions of Don Van Vliet compositions, has researched Captain Beefheart recordings and other material in the Warner vaults, and has worked on various musical projects with John ‘Drumbo’ French. The 1987 album Crazy Backwards Alphabet, which Henry Kaiser recorded with John French, Michael Maksymenko and Andy West, among others, is a splendid realisation of post-Beefheart musical possibilities.
Crazy Backwards Alphabet II, consisting of previously unheard tracks taken from the original sessions, was released in September 2007 on Henry Kaiser’s new digital label There Records / A Train. A good many other Henry Kaiser albums have also been compressed for that label.
There Records / A Train have kept very quiet about their “lossy” product, and there does not seem to be a vinyl or CD version of Crazy Backwards Alphabet II.
As far as I know, just one track from Crazy Backwards Alphabet II is available in a non-scratchproof format. Ten Year Anniversary is on Michael Maksymenko’s 2008 retrospective CD from ReR Megacorp, Businesscide – MP3 and WMA samples at Juno Records. The Kräldjursanstalten MySpace page gives a taste of some of Michael’s other recordings.
And while I’m mentioning Swedish musicians with a Beefheart bent, erstwhile Beefheart cover guitarist Jimmy Ã…gren has a new album called Various Phobias. His MySpace page should point the way.
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