TROUT MASK REPLICA

Captain Beefheart

RIO/Avant-Prog

3.76 | 390 ratings

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Neu!mann
Prog Reviewer

The five stars are meant only as provocation: I really don't have a clue how to rate this thing, except to note my astonishment at first hearing it.

And this is from someone, keep in mind, who has already plumbed the deepest recesses of FAUST, sampled the arcane political noise of HENRY COW, and fallen under the spell of THE SHAGGS. Speaking of which, it just occurred to me that on their LP "Philosophy of the World" the Wiggin sisters had already reached pretty much the same aesthetic end as CAPTAIN BEEFHEART, but of course (bless their little backwoods hearts) without the same massive intake of drugs.

So what was the reaction of this veteran Proghead and connoisseur of the un-commercial after his first belated exposure to the good Captain? I laughed out loud. I cringed in horror. I danced around my living room in happy spasmodic twitches, wearing nothing but my socks. I forgot my middle name. I developed a sudden craving for raw potatoes. And I finally understood the entire recorded legacy of THE RESIDENTS.

70+ minutes of uncompromising outsider music is a lot to swallow in one sitting, but it's an experience everyone should try at least once in their life. Legend says that every note on this massive double album (now a single CD, and still too much to digest) was meticulously composed, arranged, and rehearsed beforehand. But it still has the slapdash sound of an amateur garage band jam after too many beers.

I listened to it once. I can't say if I'll ever willingly listen to it again. But I'm grateful there's stuff like this out there to shake people up. And (someone call a doctor) I haven't been able to get the song "Moonlight On Vermont" out of my head for days now.

Neu!mann | 5/5 | 2005-4-26

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