RIO/AVANT-PROG

This isn't a bad album, but I just can't get into it. There are some good songs here, but not all of them are of a consistent quality. Safe as Milk is a better record, overall, but this still deserves to be heard by those who like Beefheart.

One of the biggest complaints about this album is the added effects by Bob Kraznow, so the album sounds more like many of the mainstream psychedelic rock records, with effects like reverb. Some of these effects are alright, but at the same time, they feel very out of place. Captain Beefheart's music is known to be raw and in-your-face, with heavy resemblance to old Blues songs, which were only accompanied by a single guitar, most of the time. While the Captain and his band include many instruments, their music often mirrors that rawness of the Blues. Because of the edits done to Strictly Personal, it feels off. This is possibly why the Captain later disavowed that remixing.

One of the weaker records by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, Strictly Personal is not essential, but still, there are some pretty amazing songs in there, so maybe don't miss out if you're a fan.

Apparently this album was not well distributed when originally released (although Cuneiform had released the other three studio albums this came out on French label Orkhêstra), but now it has been made available again we can only hope it gets a much wider recognition as while this is music being stretched to its limits it always makes sense, and there is a tightness and control between all four players which makes us think they are connected telepathically. The way they come together, split, let others take the lead and provide backup and then move in tangents is quite remarkable, and anyone who enjoys this style of music should definitely seek this out.

To someone with conditioned ears, this would be a bad album, plain and simple. Some wouldn't even consider this music. But I think this is the greatest musique concrète piece after Edgard Varèse's works, from whom Zappa was greatly influenced. It's quite reminiscent of Poème électronique, to me, but the difference between that piece and Lumpy Gravy is how the latter is more of a comedic composition, in contrast to the dark, edgy soundscape of Poème électronique.

Frank Zappa's Hot Rats was marketed as a "movie for your ears", but I think this record fits that bill better. If Hot Rats is a relatively conventional film, like, say, a Martin Scorsese picture, Lumpy Gravy is like a film by David Lynch; Inland Empire, for example. In any case, this is one of the most exciting records done by Zappa, and it's one of my most listened-to albums by him. I'm still new to his discography, even though I discovered him over a year ago. I tend to get stuck with individual albums for such a long time because you have to learn to enjoy them. They're complex and completely weird compared to what most listeners are used to.

Among all the weird, avant-garde records I've listened to, Lumpy Gravy takes a special spot, and, even though I cannot tell yet, this might end up being one of my favourite albums by Zappa. It's certainly the most fascinating one I've listened to yet.

Not all the songs here go for a dissonant, atonal sound like in some of their other works, and are actually listenable to even someone who goes for classic prog music, with a bit of an open mind.

It's also notable that the heavy, psychedelic, and even somewhat confrontational sound they use here was a great influence on genres like punk rock and alternative rock.

The songwriting is also outstanding. Yes, it's not something that many people will "get", and those who I've asked to listen to these songs almost always told me that these lyrics make no sense, often in a derisive way. While I don't blame people for not liking the lyrics, it must be noted that they are about the atmosphere and imagery, more than any proper meaning. The surrealism of Captain Beefheart's lyrics is almost never replicated well, and he's an amazing songwriter in a unique way. Doc at the Radar Station, like Trout Mask Replica and Bat Chain Puller, has some amazing lyrics.

My favourite songs on this album are Sue Egypt, which boasts an almost magical soundscape along with lyrical delivery that's both funny and bemusing at the same time; Brickbats, with some of the most intriguing imagery I've experienced in a song and a killer guitar riff; Telephone, that embodies technophobia and panic, and the final song, Making Love to a Vampire with a Monkey on my Knee, which features heavy profanity, unlike all the other songs on the album.

This has become a record that I cannot live without, and while it's anything but approachable to a mainstream audience, it's a highly influential, varied, consistent, and really unique album.

The band are on the top of their game. Wonderful solos, and Frank nails it yet again with his guitar here. The album is interspersed with chat that makes it so reminiscent of Roxy. Either way it is a most worthy companion to Roxy, and if you love that period of Zappa as I do, this is an immediate favourite. Classic Zappa and a 4.5 for the sheer quality of this release.

Sit back and enjoy this!

Unlike Cavalcade and Hellfire which are more of a controlled chaos, Schlagenheim is just out there. This album was before they really delved into a more progressive rock leaning sound, so they were more known as a very experimental noise rock group. And noisy this album is, because by the first track of 953 they rarely relent on their super noisy aspects, making music that is extremely intense. As a fan of noise rock, this album is a treat to listen to, especially on the more overtly post-hardcore tracks like Speedway and Years Ago.

The album is also more overtly math rock and post-punk in comparison to their other albums, giving this one a very different aura around it. If I had to describe the album's energy, it would be '1800s insane asylum'. Their other albums are definitely crazy too, don't get me wrong, but again, the controlled chaos does make them feel less wild, which isn't bad, but Schlagenheim certainly is unafraid to go full throttle, which it does most of the time.

I do think that the albums later on in black midi's discography is much better though, mainly because I find they work more in a progressive leaning stance more often than not. Don't get me wrong, this album is definitely prog, but it's more prog second and noisy math rock first. I think if the band upped their progginess on here it'd be just as good as Cavalcade or Hellfire in my opinion. What we got here is still really good, but I feel like its unrelenting wild, fenetic energy does lose a bit of the edge that the two future records they made have.

But this album has one thing that gives it some extra points in comparison to Cavalcade and Hellfire...it has bmbmbm. I freaking love bmbmbm. It's crazy, it's stupid, it's edgy, it's basically black midi saying 'we're not gonna be accessible anytime soon' and I love it. Play this infront of your grandma.

While it may not be Cavalcade or Hellfire, Schlagenheim definitely proves its worth and mirth by being a crazy noise rock record for all to hear. In a way, I feel like black midi's already small discography wouldn't be as fruitful to listen to if Schlageneheim didn't exist. Like a good roster, you gotta have that one or two weirdos to really complete the select screen. Sometimes, you just gotta have Schlagenheim in your life.

Best tracks: Speedway, bmbmbm, Years Ago

Worst tracks: n/a

I still have "Vortex" and "Three Movements" as my favourite SONAR records then add Stephan Thelen's "Fractal Guitar" and you have my top three. Love the tritone guitars and bass on this one. A five piece lineup including Torn as we have three guitarists with both Stephan Thelen and Bernhard Wagner playing tritone guitars. Torn doesn't. He has his electric plus adds live looping. Christian Kuntner on bass is a big improvement with his tritone bass to the FRACTAL SEXTET bass sound. And I found that band to be too minimalistic.

It is pretty cool the atmosphere and spacey sounds that are created through the guitars. No keyboards here. Manuel Pasquinelli is like a Swiss clock on drums and percussion. This album sounds amazing clocking in at a tidy 39 minutes over four tracks. I won't describe the tracks as I will be repeating myself constantly. A top ten for 2019 but I will take Stephan Thelen's "Fractal Guitar" also from 2019 over this in a heartbeat. This music is incredible to listen to when driving I might add.

Is this contemporary classical, the work of a genius, or the master tape of a madman? In any case, 'Lumpy Gravy' is a demanding, intense listen that carries the listener throughout numerous shorter pieces of music, orchestral arrangements, spoken word interludes, and blatant musique concrète intrusions. There is a patchiness to the two big pieces, a general discontinuity between all the different elements making up the re-arranged version of the album. And while the dialogues might seem hilarious and wittily sarcastic, there are some seriously good musical motifs, especially on side one, yet not always sitting perfectly well with the hazardous arrangement (or lack thereof) of all the other disparate sonic experiments. As impressive and curious as this album may seem, it is also a fragmented work that lacks the coherence of preceding releases of Zappa, which hinders its listening to an extent - nevertheless, it has to be one of the strangely "essential" avant-garde albums of the late 1960s.

Herein, many of the shorter pieces actually make up for longer suites, led by a certain musical motif around which the rest of the compositions are developed, which in many regards works as the anticipation of the progressive rock style and what the bands associated with it would go on to experiment with later on. Not an easy album to dissect or digest, similarly to the debut, 'Absolutely Free' still has some really fine pieces like the great suites 'The Duke of Prunes' and 'Call Any Vegetables' on side one, with a strong display of Zappa's improvisational style of play, and the garage-prog collage of sounds found on side two ('Brown Shoes Don't Make It') with all of its quirky accompanying shorter tracks. The strengths of this album overshadow its downsides for sure, which is very likely why this release is well-respected and seen as a significant part of the classic MOI catalogue, and despite its obvious but cheerfully chaotic and patchy flaws, 'Absolutely Free' indicates a desire for rebellion as well as a vision of ominous quirkiness that we just cannot ignore.

You can call it challenging and entertaining, and whatever this album may be, the four sides of this LP assault the listener with the vicious and humorous patchwork of sounds, effects, vocal trips, and occasional use of some ridiculous instruments, at least for what concerns our idea of rock music. Vehemently experimental, 'Freak Out!' is interestingly enough a concept album, too, wherein each song depicts a particular scene, it inhibits an idea and explores it so that the whole of the work is tied together by the vision of its creator. There are absolutely bizarre arrangements, some wackily constructed pieces made up of different movements, catchy and quirky pop-sided blues numbers, and kazoo-laden jams; in a word, a tiny bit of everything. A world of its own, this debut album already anticipates a lot of the musical vocabulary that would become synonymous with Zappa's name, and the most daring part of it has to be the blatant experimentation and anecdotal musical parodies, as heard on some of the classics like 'Hungry Freaks, Daddy', 'Motherly Love', 'Any Way the Wind Blows', 'Trouble Every Day', the 'Help I'm a Rock' absurd suite in three movements, or the closing side-long and provocative collage of sounds and tapes, the 12-minute-long 'The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet', perhaps the essential antidote to all the Bob-Dylans out there. A massive album that introduced a new sensitivity in rock, it showed a comical manner and an avant-garde approach that transcends genre, and eventually, would influence a whole bunch of later movements and styles.