HOT RATS

"This movie for your ears." proclaims the album credits. Colouful, full of humour, wit and musicianship; and unlike much other Zappa, without the caustic, often obscene themes and lyrics that became tiresome after a while.

The album is entirely instrumental, except for Captain Beefhearts' contribution on "Willie the Pimp". It's an experimental mixture of jazz, blues, and rock, with a twist of Zappa's bizarre humour. Although it's tagged as a solo album, special mention goes to Ian Underwood, multi-instrumentalist, who helps set the style for the proceedings.

"Peaches En Regalia" starts the album and is one of the most original, tuneful pieces of music your ears will come across. "Willie the Pimp" is basically a long Zappa guitar solo, and there's nothing wrong with that. "It Must Be A Camel" can indeed lead you to picture the rather ungainly movement of the beast (the track claims to feature Jon-Luc Ponty but I've never been able to make him out on the mix.).Each track is individual in nature but all fit within the overall style of the album. If you think I'm struggling to describe the music, you'd be right. It's some of the most imaginative stuff you could want to hear, and it stands as a testament of how great Zappa was - and how he squandered much of his talent in his later projects. It's difficult to grade it because it's not flawless, but on the other hand it could be called essential; I'm not sure Zappa ever thought of himself as "progressive" but this is a must have for any self-respecting prog fans collection.