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.