Uncle Meat

by

The Mothers of Invention

Edit

One of the problems with Frank Zappa's immense catalog (nearly 60 releases) is that it can take an interested listenter a long time to find the cream of the crop. I hiope to solve that for you by telling you to BUY THIS CD AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. The "Uncle Meat" double CD contains what could be some of the best and most interesting music of our century.

The CD has more than Rock and Roll. In fact, some of the most wonderful things on the discs are the marimba-laden "classical" tracks. Not that the disc doesn't contain fanstatic rock. Zappa knew how to make an _album_, though; the individual songs are difficult to isolate because you will soon think of "Uncle Meat" as a single compositional entity.

There is one hitch to this concept-album-like flow. The CD version (as opposed to the cassette or LP) contains nearly a half an hour of audio footage from the filming of the never-really-completed Uncle Meat movie. Instead of putting the "bonus" stuff at the end of the disc, it has been inserted between songs on the second disc. Your listening enjoyment of the music will come to a grinding halt as you reach for the remote. Don't get me wrong! Listen to the audio footage. There's some great stuff. Listen to it often, if you like. But just be prepared when you're lost in the music to bounce out of your reverie. The position of the bonus audio footage is the only thing that holds me back from heartily and readily giving the CD a perfect 10 rating. END

I'd give this five stars for the music, but after doing an A-B comparison of this CD set and the original vinyl, I give the CD set three stars for its 1987 remix. I rate the vinyl as far better--not because of arcane "vinyl has more tang and warmth in itself" arguments, but because the 1968 mix kicks the feathers out of the 1987 digital remix, which is all one can get on CD. The 1968 mix sounds like 1968. The 1987 mix sounds like 60s musicians teleported to a 1987 studio. The aural image or "soundstage" in the original is quite tight, but with justice--it's not too cramped. But it features a sharp drum sound without a lot of cymbal sibilance and it does have other "saxy" high-mid range sounds involving keys and reed instruments that the remixers decided they didn't like anymore, so that the instruments have a wildly different EQ and are spread out on the soundstage like raisins taken out of the box and laid neatly onto a table. Well, Ok, but it doesn't sound like the Mothers in 1968 anymore--too much digital air, sweetness, and sibilance is added. The tight, dark sound quality of the vinyl mix, like that of a "band in a good basement club" sound, is lost.

---

Don't let this review stop you from getting the CD--as it is not an "abomination" remix, as some 80s remixes were, but consider the vinyl if you like vinyl . . .