Ragged Atlas

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
All About Jazz	[2]
AllMusic	[3]
Clouds and Clocks	mixed[4]

John Kelman, Nic Jones and Mark Corroto wrote favorable reviews of Ragged Atlas at All About Jazz,[2][5][6] whereas Beppe Colli at Clouds and Clocks had mixed feeling about the album.[4]

Kelman described Cosa Brava as "the perfect nexus between [Frith's] more accessible yet still left-leaning music for dance, [...] and the more challenging structures of his 1970s work with Henry Cow".[2] He said that Ragged Atlas "transcends time and genre" and has "[b]road dynamics, a blend of acoustic and electric instrumentation, fine compositional detail, and surprisingly memorable melodies".[2] Kelman said that it "stands as one of 2010's most auspicious debuts".[2]

Corroto called the album a "classic 1970s rock opera", and described the music as a mixture of "folk, Celtic, modern chamber, Latin, funk, Eastern, and prog-rock".[6] He said that Frith "never stray[ed] far from joyous music making".[6] Jones wrote that there is an "impishness about the music, a sense of fun that [...] stems from the joy of discovery".[5] As an example he said that the "arguably banal lyric" in the track "Falling Up (for Amanda)" is elevated to another level by the supple music of Carla Kihlstedt's violin".[5] Jones said that "Tall Story" works because of the musicianship of the group, and that in lesser hands it "might come off as so much fluff".[5]

Colli was critical of the album, saying that the volume is "deafening", and that the music is "often tacky, bombastic, as if looking for an applause".[4] He did like some of the tracks, for example "Lucky Thirteen", which he said has a "meditative mood, fine unison from vocals and violin", and "Tall Story", with its "light, fine theme".[4] Overall, however, Colli described the album as "kitsch".[4]

All tracks are written by Fred Frith, except where noted.

Source: CD liner notes written by Frith; all quotes by Frith.

• "Pour Albert" (Albert Marcoeur) – Frith called Marcoeur one of his "favorite" songwriters and musicians, and a "warm and generous friend and teacher".
• "R. D. Burman" (Rahul Dev Burman) – Burman was an Indian film score composer who "fearlessly mixed genres, styles, cultures, and instruments" to create a "unique body of work" spanning a 30-year career.
• "Falling Up (for Amanda)" (Amanda Miller) – Frith described Miller as an "extraordinary dancer, inspiring choreographer, and uncompromising philosopher"; Miller and Frith once led a workshop at the Edinburgh Festival where Miller taught dancers how to "fall up".
• "Out on the Town with Rusty, 1967" – Frith met Rusty ("the epitome of cool") while performing at the York Folk Club in mid-1967; they became friends that summer, played at local Working Men's Clubs, and attended a Jimi Hendrix concert in Woburn, Bedfordshire; a few months later, after Frith had returned to university, Rusty was killed in a motorbike accident.
• "Blimey, Einstein" (Albert Einstein) – "[H]ey, it ain't rocket science."
• "For Tom Zé" (Tom Zé) – Zé inspired Frith with his technique of mixing popular Brazilian song with "wacky" modern composition.

• Fred Frith – guitar, bass guitar, vocals
• Carla Kihlstedt – violin, nyckelharpa, bass harmonica, vocals
• Zeena Parkins – accordion, keyboards, foley objects, vocals
• Matthias Bossi – drums, percussion, sruti box, vocals
• The Norman Conquest – sound manipulation

• Ragged Atlas at Intakt Records
• Ragged Atlas reviews at Intakt Records