Fear No Love

Fear No Love
Studio album by Bob Ostertag
Released	February 18, 1995 (1995-02-18)
Recorded	spring – summer 1994 (1994)
Studio	Bob's bedroom
Genre	Experimental
Length	49:18
Label	Avant
Bob Ostertag chronology
All the Rage (1993) Fear No Love (1995) Twins! (1996)

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]}

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
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

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

No.	Title	Length
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

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

Musicians

• Trevor Dunn  – bass guitar (1, 3, 4)
• Fred Frith  – bass guitar (2, 4, 6))
• Bob Ostertag  – programming, arrangements, sampler (1, 2, 3, 5), bass guitar (1, 4), drums (1, 5), midi drums (2–4), synthesizer (2, 4, 6), guitar (2, 4), MIDI keyboard (1), percussion (1), midi bass (5), midi percussion (6)
• J. D. Reilley – keyboards (1, 2, 4, 6)

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

• Phyllis Christopher – photography
• Disk Union – executive-producer
• Pamela August Russell – photography
• Alex Stahl – mixing
• Kazunori Sugiyama – associate producer
• John Zorn  – executive-producer

Release history

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

References

1. "Bob Ostertag: Verbatim". Option . 72–76. Sonic Options Network. 1997.
2. "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. 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.

External links

• Fear No Love at Bandcamp
• Fear No Love at Discogs (list of releases)