Fear No Love is the fourth studio album by Bob Ostertag, released on February 18, 1995 by Avant Records.[1] The album's concept deals with the phobias surrounding queer love including fear of intimacy, fear of gender, fear of stereotypes, fear of AIDS, fear of rejection and fear of fear.[2][3]

Fear No Love
Studio album by
ReleasedFebruary 18, 1995 (1995-02-18)
Recordedspring – summer 1994 (1994)
StudioBob's bedroom
GenreExperimental
Length49:18
LabelAvant
Bob Ostertag chronology
All the Rage
(1993)
Fear No Love
(1995)
Twins!
(1996)

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [4]

Dean McFarlane of AllMusic noted the surrealism and black humor of Fear No Love and awarded the album three and a half out of five stars, saying "those expecting a heady avant-garde experiment may be shocked to find this record to be a hilarious plunderphonic sampling attack on disco,techno, and R&B music."[4][5] The Wire gave the album a positive review, saying "Ostertag's method of computeranatomising his colleagues' contributions into samples and mechanically constructing songs out of them is more than usually redundant on this only mildly diverting, dirty talking and dotty pseudofunk outing."[6] The Advocate said "there's an intensely homo sense of humor and humanity at work that enlivens the experimentation."[2]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Sarah Miles, except "Scared of Love" by Christian Huygen

No.TitleLength
1."Scared of Love"8:23
2."The Man in the Blue Slip"10:50
3."Eat Dust"4:44
4."Not Your Girl"6:00
5."Right Like a Railroad"10:27
6."Positive"8:55

Personnel

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Adapted from the Fear No Love liner notes.[7]

Musicians

Additional musicians

  • Joey Blake – backing vocals (6)
  • Justin Bond – vocals (2, 4)
  • Lynn Breedlove – vocals (3, 4)
  • Chris Brown – sampler (3)
  • Fred Frith – guitar (2, 5)
  • Jim Hedges – guitar (1, 2)
  • Philip Horvitz – vocals (4)
  • Christian Huygen – vocals (1)
  • Raz Kennedy – backing vocals (6)
  • Andrea Lewis – backing vocals (1), vocals (5)
  • Mike Patton – vocals (2, 4)
  • Annie Toone – harmonica (4, 5)
  • Richie Waits – vocals (5)
  • William Winant – percussion (2)

Production and design

Release history

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Region Date Label Format Catalog
Japan 1995 Avant CD Avan 041
United States 2010 Free Music Archive DL

References

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  1. ^ "Bob Ostertag: Verbatim". Option. 72–76. Sonic Options Network. 1997.
  2. ^ a b "Bob Ostertag: Fear No Love". The Advocate (679). Here Publishing: 61. April 18, 1995. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
  3. ^ Ostertag, Bob (July 27, 2009). Creative Life: Music, Politics, People, and Machines. McFarland & Company. p. 222. ISBN 9780252076466. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  4. ^ a b McFarlane, Dean. "Bob Ostertag: Fear No Love > Review". AllMusic. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
  5. ^ Rusch, Bob (1999). "Bob Ostertag: Fear No Love". Cadence. David Haney: 3. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
  6. ^ "Bob Ostertag: Fear No Love". The Wire (131–136). Tony Herrington: 67. 1995. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
  7. ^ Fear No Love (booklet). Bob Ostertag. Tokyo, Japan: Avant Records. 1995.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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