Killing Time

Released on a 3-sided double-LP
Following the breakup of Cambridge’s avant-rock legends, Henry Cow, guitarist Fred Frith moved to NYC in 1979, and soon found himself deep in the heart of the city’s robust post-punk and free-jazz scenes, performing with Bill Laswell and Fred Maher, from the group Material, as a power trio of sorts under the moniker of Massacre. The group quickly garnered a reputation around town, and around the world for that matter, as a heavy and heady band that experimented greatly with rhythm, time signatures, and tone. As Frith himself put it, “the group was a direct response to New York. It was a very aggressive group, kind of my reaction to the whole New York rock club scene.”
Massacre released one album, Killing Time, before disbanding for nearly 20 years. Their first wave as a group crashed fast and furiously and this one album, recorded in part live in Paris, and in part at Brooklyn’s OAO Studio, is a perfect encapsulation of early 80s NYC. In addition to the original album, first released on Celluloid in 1981, this deluxe 3 sided 2LP includes 8 bonus tracks recorded live between 80 and 81 and The Stone in San Francisco, and Inroads and CBGB’s in NYC. Avant-jazz-post-punk-noise of the highest order from several legends and one of the most important projects Frith and Laswell were ever involved in, reissued by Spittle