Frank Zappa – Hot Rats (LP Vinyl)
Review
Frank Zappa technically "went solo" in 1967, recruiting an army of session players for the orchestral sound-collage lunacy of Lumpy Gravy. But that album—which featured several members of his ragtag backing band The Mothers of Invention— felt more like a one-off detour than a new destination. Two years later, after dissolving the group's original line-up, the guitarist-composer was, to borrow one of his own titles, absolutely free: Adding his own avant-garde flavor to the burgeoning jazz-fusion aesthetic, Zappa hunkered down in the studio with a rotating crew of hip studio players (including one Mother of Invention, woodwind/keyboard whiz Ian Underwood) and emerged with Hot Rats, the defining triumph of his early career. No longer composing around the Mothers' technical limitations (they were creative musicians but not exactly virtuosos), the mustachioed mastermind funneled his most grandiose ideas into a newly unveiled six-track console— from the dense, carnivalesque arrangements of "Peaches en Regalia" and "Son of Mr. Green Genes" to the long-grinding blues jams of "The Gumbo Variations" and "Willie the Pimp" (featuring the delightfully demented holler of Captain Beefheart). Five decades later, The Hot Rats Sessions empties the cupboards from those prolific sessions, collecting basic rhythm section tracks (complete with Zappa's hilarious producer-mode talkback: At one point, he requests that drummer John Guerin "destroy the mood completely"), alternate mixes (including an incendiary, guitarheavy "1969 Mix Outtake" of "It Must Be a Camel") and rare-tounheard nuggets (the bluesy, violin-dominated instrumental "Bognor Regis"). It's easy to bask in Hot Rats' fluid firepower and forget how much sweat and strain powered these compositions. Zappa was a genius, but he worked hard at it.
— Ryan Reed, Relix
Product Details
Released just after the dissolution of the Mothers of Invention, Hot Rats was Zappa retreating into the studio with an almost purely instrumental vision, letting the compositions breathe in ways his earlier band work rarely allowed. The violin work of Don "Sugarcane" Harris and Jean-Luc Ponty across these six tracks connects directly to the improvisational language that jazz and rock musicians are still chasing today.
Hot Rats cemented Frank Zappa as a musical force to be reckoned with. The album, recorded on a prototype 16-track recorder, sounds as fresh & sonically superior on this 180 gram audiophile edition as it did when first released in 1969. Blending rock and jazz stylings with top call studio musicians, it opened the door to 'Fusion Music' while putting FZ on the guitar player map. Captain Beefheart makes a special guest appearance. It truly is a 'Movie For Your Ears.'
Tracklist
Side A
Side B
UPC: 824302384114
Label: Zappa Records
Release Date: 8.26.16
Format: LP Vinyl