Part 2 of Joe Travers’ archaeological exploration of the Zappa vault resulted in probably the most controversial ZFT release thus far: an old cassette containing a rehearsal from FZ’s preliminary explorations with the repertoire for the albums that would soon come to be known as Waka/Jawaka and the Grand Wazoo. So, what’s wrong with it? Well, the sound is somewhat “roomy”, with the room in question being a wretched sounding rehearsal space in Hollywood. A boomy, nasty tone that will be tragically familiar to anyone who has rented a second rate rehearsal space anywhere in the world, only to hear their music being sonically destroyed by rooms that were not meant to have notes played in them! So, the sound sucks….but actually, that is for me the only real issue to complain about. What you have here is the chance to be a fly on the wall at the turning point of one of Frank’s most fascinating projects – and the fact that the music is some considerable distance away from the finished result only adds to the intrigue. Blessed Relief and bits of Greggery Peccary all appear in radically different forms, plus The Grand Wazoo itself with lyrics!!

You also get to hear FZ painstakingly teaching parts to the musicians by rote with guitar in hand (probably still confined to his wheelchair too)….and despite all of the “magic” that we know and love from the finished recordings, there is a matter of fact, almost perfunctory nature to these rehearsals that reminds the listener that behind every FZ masterpiece was a shit load of hard graft. The end of the cassette is quite revealing as Frank and Aynsley Dunbar play a new section, that in the end wasn’t incorporated into the finished work (although the Mothers had played it on stage previously) and Frank says that he hopes that he’ll have time to copy out parts before the next rehearsal. There is some chat about what day is best for the next meeting and who can make it, and as the recording abruptly cuts of, you are left with a real sense of the normality of Frank’s day to day existence in 1972.

Or you are bored to tears and regretting splashing out the full CD price (plus shipping) for a hard to listen to bootleg with lots of talking and songs you already own in better versions! Well, either opinion is fair. I’m not sure how many times I listen to this one, but I am glad I own it.

A real surprise this one, but as with the Halloween DVDaudio, the success really depends on if you have a 5:1 system….which I don’t. So…what’s in it for the Luddite who doesn’t really fancy positioning a multitude of speakers around his already crowded living space? Well, actually many tasty treats – and perhaps one track that could even make it into a Zappa top 10 songs list.

The premise for this cumbersomely titled album was the notion that Frank was interested in multi-channel mixing as early as 1970, as demonstrated by a “quad” recording of Chunga’s Revenge made in the Zappa basement that has a wonderfully intimate and loose feel to it that feels as though you are sat in the corner of the room next to the bass amp – and this is just the stereo mix. Of course, Frank did release quadraphonic mixes of albums in the 70’s, such as Overnite Sensation, and there are other examples of previously released Zappa tracks (Wild Love, Naval Aviation In Art?) in the surround sound mode, and of course for “boring” stereo dwellers such as myself it’s these moments that hold little interest. Although, as any Hardcore Zappa fan knows, it’s always fun to hear familiar songs in a different context which is of course a major Zappa speciality.

But what of the gold buried within the album? Look no further than Rollo. It’s strange to consider the poor results of many rock/orchestra collaborations in the light of the joyously successful noise that Frank manages to produce here. It just seems so natural to have these seemingly opposing musical forces wailing away together live on stage in 1975. But of course, it’s the composition that is king – previously released as the coda to the 1979 live version of Yellow Snow (You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol: 1) and actually dating much further back to the 1972 “Petit Wazoo” tour, Rollo really is Frank at his best. Comically heroic brass fanfares, funky clavinet driven grooves, a biting guitar solo and a remarkable sense of orchestration (listen to when everyone starts folding in after the brief cor anglais solo near the end) all show Frank to be at the top of his game. Dweezil sums it up in the liner notes: Bitchen!

The best of the rest is an unoverdubbed Waka-Jawaka, which is perhaps less interesting to listen to but more thought provoking as to the level of further composition that was to come in order to provide the piece’s conclusion. Then there is the wonderful Basement Music #2, a further example of Frank enjoying messing around with early electronics that was a precursor to his later obsession with the Synclavier. And in a similar spirit there is a hitherto unheard version of the vamps from Easter Hay and Deathless Horsie overlaid with a stinging yet poignant Zappa interview about the state of the music industry.

So, with the caveat about 5:1 taken into account, this was certainly a fun and interesting release.

Michael Mantler/Carla Bley – 13 and 3/4

Loosely affiliated with ECM via a distribution deal, WATT records was the collaborative label established by composers Bley and Mantler to exclusively present their own music. And just as well, as even in the “golden age” that this was recorded in (1975) you can’t imagine too many record labels saying, “yeah, ok…why not?” to this music. This is a seriously dark and disturbing orchestral/free jazz/minimalist/cacophonous hell fire of an album, or at least 50% of it is. Bley’s 3/4, is appropriately enough in a lurching waltz-time for the most part, with its main child-like piano part sounding like Steve Reich without the theoretical posturing, mixed with a slightly inebriated version of the main theme from The Godfather. It’s still a challenge though, but anyone who has enjoyed her epic Escalator Over The Hill will find the subtly humorous, yet adventurous score very pleasing .

Over on the other side of the record however, Mantler’s 13 makes Carla Bley’s piece feel like the Carpenters. Imagine one of those horribly jarring orchestral moments that you get when someone gets stabbed in a horror movie – then keep that sound going. Then keep it going some more. Then remove all sense of structure and tonality and why not add a second orchestra to the mix? Yes that’s right, no less than 8 trumpets, 6 trombones, 4 french horns, 2 bass trombones and 3 tubas constitute mearly the brass element, and that’s already enough for Mahler and Wagner to get slightly wet eyed over. It also sounds as though the sax section from the Glenn Miller orchestra have accidentally crash landed into the studio as well. Though ultimately as impressive a sound as this makes, what is particularly stomach churning about the piece is its intensity, almost to the point where by the end you literally can’t take it any more (as I’m sat typing this the final deranged onslaught of  the piece is genuinely causing me mild breathing difficulties!) But, despite that the work is strangely compelling. Again, like a horror film there is something about it where you just can’t take your eyes or ears off it, no matter how horrific it gets. And everyone looks to be having a very pleasant afternoon in the woods on the back cover, so that’s nice.

Although not available on CD, those of you with Spotify access can hear the opening 3 mins of Mantler’s half of the album on the recent ECM retrospective of Michael Mantler called Review:

An agonizing 15 month wait was on the cards for Zappa fanatics after the release of Halloween and it did sort of feel as if the Vault may have involuntarily sealed itself up, especially as the ZFT had begun their curious policy of less than helpful information distribution: i.e, you got a new Zappa album in your hands roughly a few days or so after they announced it, with precious little promotional build up and little or no explanation as to why any particular release had been chosen. So it was with Joe’s Corsage that appeared somewhat unexpectedly in May 2004. The Zappas though had really shot themselves in the foot in terms of fan expectations by making available the film trailer for the Roxy Performances a few years before, as any release that didn’t in some way feature Frank and the Mothers live on stage in December ‘73 would inevitably be a tad dissapointing. Despite that though, the concept of the “Joe’s” series was an interesting one: Joe Travers, now firmly trusted with the alarm code for the Vault had been given a further licence to collate releases of particularly unique historical value, that might otherwise not fit in to any other project.

First up in the collection (which at the time of writing is currently at four volumes) were a selection of pre – Freak Out demos by the “original” Mothers featuring, on the first four tracks, second guitarist Henry Vestine, plus a few covers (the Wedding Dress Song/Handsome Cabin Boy combo makes an early appearance here) and a few brief spoken word sections with Zappa talking about the early days. There’s also a fun early version of Take Your Clothes of When You Dance with different lyrics. Sound quality is quite stunning considering the era, and overall this brief CD makes a nice little companion to both Freak Out and the Mystery Disc and Lost Episodes albums. But, you can’t help feeling that maybe it’s real home would have been on the giant MOFO boxset from a few years down the line. The following “Joe’s” albums (each with it’s own bewilderingly obscure rhyme for Garage) would produce even more controversey regarding just what Zappa fans were prepared to pay for. But before that there was yet another unexpected release in the form of Quaudiophiliac….

The late 90’s was a strange time for Zappa fans. The Zappa Family Trust in partnership with Rykodisc had unveiled the rather wonderful “Lost Episodes” and “Lather“, but by the time that “Have I Offended Someone” and “Mystery Disc” came out they seemed to be accompanied by the highly ambient sound of the bottom of a barrel being vigorously scrapped. What about the mythical Vault we had heard so much about? A subterranean lair 73 miles deep filled with 2,396 unreleased Zappa albums…or at the very least a few cool live shows? Time passed…something Zappa fans would soon get used to in regards to new releases. But then! Suddenly! An animated Kangaroo appeared on zappa.com signalling the arrival of the first, official Vault release: FZ:OZ – Live In Australia. After getting over the initial disappointment that this was not from the 1973 world tour with the Ponty/Duke era band, fans could start getting excited about what was contained on these two discs. Firstly, the extremely rare line up of Napoleon Murphy Brock, Roy Estrada, Terry Bozzio and the “blink and you’ll miss him” super rare appearance of Andre Lewis on Keyboards, who has a very distinct playing style, particularly when he takes his many synth solos throughout the show. Then there was the prospect of a full, complete concert. Not even the Helsinki Concert had been a single unedited performance, so this was a first. And also, a great set list. Certainly, short on the instrumentally challenging side of things, but interesting nonetheless with both Freak Out and We’re Only in it for the Money medleys, prototype versions of soon-to-be-classic Zappa songs, and lots and lots of great guitar solos. In fact, disc 1 feels a little like a Blues version of Shut up and Play Your Guitar at times.

But it’s on disc 2 that, for me the fun really starts. There’s the just about recognizable early draft of Let’s Move to Cleveland, here going by the title of Canard Toujours, a 100% unreleased “new” song in the form of Kaiser Rolls – not a Zappa classic, but still well worth hearing – and the aforementioned Money medley, featuring my favourite moment on the whole album: the blistering re-working of Lonely Little Girl that contains the coolest guitar solo since…well, Advance Romance back on disc 1.

Chunga’s Revenge (amazingly receiving its first official live release here) and Zoot Allures finish the main part of the set with nearly 30 mins of solos and, later on in Frank’s case, some extremely introverted guitar improvisation that makes you forget the fact that there were several thousand, possibly inebriated, Australians waiting for Dinah-Moe-Humm. In fact, it’s worth remembering what a challenge a Zappa show must have been for the “average” audience, with a good 50% of this material being unreleased at the time of the recording. Even on CD, and listening in the comfort of your own home, the full concert experience is quite exhausting – name any other artist in history who played, completely uninterrupted for over 2 hours?? – so much so that the encores are a bit of a let down and probably will be listened to considerably less that the bulk of the main concert.

As an opening shot from the ZFT this was a great start with lots to keep rediscovering upon each listen. But the next few years would prove to be an extremely bumpy ride….

to be continued…

Anyway, the gig! Porcupine Tree are the best live band in the UK today. There, i’ve said it! Possibly the best band in the world, considering the uniqueness of what they do. For those who have been living in a cave for the last few months, this tour features the band playing there 55min epic song-cycle “the Incident” for the first half of the show – and it was incredible. From the moment that Wilson and the band walked out and hit those deafening opening chords to the final acoustic arpeggios of “I Drive the Hearse”, the Bristol audience were treated to a masterful display of songwriting, musicianship, texture and dynamics. In a nice touch, Steven used the brief gap between “the Blind House” and “Great Expectations” to speak to the audience to say how great it was that every time they play Bristol they get promoted to a bigger venue.

And it’s true. My first Porcupine Tree gig was in 1997 in a tiny club with about 30 people in the audience that nearly ended in a mini riot when Wilson started having a go at the lamentable venue management (there wasn’t enough power to run all of the band’s equipment and no promotion had been done). Later gigs at Shepherds Bush and the Astoria showed how the band had managed to punch through all the odds to be a cult band with a respectable following. But i’m sure every long time fan has seen the difference in all aspects of the band’s promotional activities recently. It certainly felt different arriving at Colston Hall, with a wonderfully diverse collection of fans of all ages, proving that Porcupine Tree may not be “cool”, but as Frank Zappa said, “who give s a fuck anyway!”.

Highlights of the first set included the monumental guitar solo in “Time Flies” and the mesmerising animation that formed the backdrop for “Octane Twisted” – a deeply disturbing yet beautiful sequence that sees some bizarre robot type creatures causing a train crash…I think. All of the projections were great in fact – and there were even some dead babies thrown in for good measure to keep the Bass Communion fans happy! The sound was spot on, allowing even the most subtle of keyboard effects from Richard Barbieri to be heard clearly. Top marks to for the lights – simple yet effective use of colour without too many vari-lites going berserk, although those white lights on either side of the stage did burn permanent shapes on to my retina, but not to worry.

Set Two was mainly for oldies, that’s if you count everything from “In Absentia” onwards as being old of course. A decisive moment happened two songs in when Wilson asked the audience to stand up. It has to be said, the energy in the room increased enormously paving the way for a jaw dropping rendition of the middle part from “Anesthetize” – for me the absoulute highlight of the gig. That was, at least, until “Strip the Soul”. So, so, so very fine indeed, plus a nice segue into “.3″, also from “In Absentia”. Wilson had some issues with his in-ear monitor leading to some amusingly home-erotic comments from the crowd as his guitar tech fitted him with a new device – which can’t have worked too well as the audience’s over enthusiastic clapping nearly caused a train wreck during “Lazurus”!

Encores were the now obligatory “Sound of Musak” and “Trains”, and they were just the right thing too, after an intense show. All in all, it was a fantastic performance all round. Special mention should be given to John Wesley who’s role on 2nd guitar and vocals seems to keep getting better. Gavin Harrison played to his usual standard, whilst i’m fairly sure at one point Colin Edwin on bass managed to find the resonant frequency of Bristol itself such was the vibration that shook through the room!

You’re left wondering, with music as relatively demanding as this, can Porcupine Tree better this next time around. Although I seem to recall thinking the same many times before….

Setlist:

The Incident, Start of Something Beautiful, Buying New Soul, Anesthetize part 2, Remember Me Lover, Strip the Soul/.3, Lazurus, Way Out of Here, the Sound of Musak, Trains