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steveburnhamuk

Slapp Happy - Casablanca Moon (1974)

Updated: Apr 19



Another cheat. I actually own this as a 'two albums on one CD thing' alongside Slapp Happy's collaboration with Henry Cow, Desperate Straights.

But they're two very different albums and I became aware of them at two very different times, so I'm treating them separately.





Aware of Slapp Happy since the 1970s, I only heard this album about 20 years later when I borrowed it from a friend (sadly no longer with us) and found it more interesting than wonderful.

Songwriters and band members Peter Blegvad and Anthony Moore wrote a selection of almost 1930s cabaret style songs which Dagmar Krause's unique voice lifted out of the ordinary. Opening with the title track Casablanca Moon, a cloak and dagger tango drama with a violin and piano accompaniment, followed by Me And Parvati, more gentle, Half Way There, a forgettable piece and Michaelangelo, a jolly bouncy little song. It' gets a bit ordinary until a couple of very lovely songs The Secret and A Little Something. The Drum is a likeable little ditty, while Haiku, with Blegvad sharing vocals comes across as a bit too clever, and Slow Moon's Rose is a slow, laidback, but quite dull ending to the album.


It's an interesting album, with a few lovely songs and a definite 'feel', but not everything works.



3* - where it's good, it's very, very good.

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