Frank Zappa - Uncle Meat

The first three Mothers of Invention albums were really great and unique. However, on Uncle Meat, Frank Zappa takes the Mothers' sound to an entirely another level. The album retains the psychedelic sound of the previous records and there are still some song-based tunes that match the tuneful psych-pop gems on the earlier Mothers stuff, such as "Dog Breath, In the Year of the Plague" which sounds as catchy as "Who Needs the Peace Corps" from 1968's We're Only In it For Money, but with majesty that presages "Peaches En Regalia" that would appear on Hot Rats. Of other vocal material, "Sleeping In a Jar" is one of the earliest pieces written by Zappa (it was composed in 1958 along with "Pound for a Brown" as a string quartet) here presented as the main melodic block from a piece that was usually performed live as an instrumental. The arrangement is strikingly similar with Soft Machine's Volume Two: tuneful one minute ditty with colorful instrumentation and nonsensical, Dadaist lyrics. "The Air" and "Electric Aunt Jemina" are charming mock-doo-wop numbers and "Mr. Green Genes" is a lovely slice of dreamy low-key psychedelia which is also reminiscent of "Duke Of Prunes". "Cruising For Burgers" is probably the complex of all of these, very reminiscent of WOIIFTM album tracks, but with even more complex instrumentation. Another great one.

Then there are odd tracks that are partially musical jokes (attempt to play "Louie Louie" on Royal Albert Hall's pipe organ, hilarious version of "God Bless America"), spoken-word bits dealing with the microclimate of the Mothers ("Our Bizarre Relationships"), or live recordings mixed with band's history ("Ian Underwood whips it out" starts with Ian's story of his audition for the band and continues with furious sax-driven free-jazz jam in 5/4 time recorded in Copenhagen).

The main meat of Uncle Meat however, are instrumental tunes with either jazz leanings or chamber music instrumentation. "King Kong" is a jazzy monster with several parts that flows and swings effortlessly and has great instrumental interplay: ostinato/drone bass, swinging drums, great work on reeds and keyboards and guitars, that take leads after one another. Complex, yet mesmerizing. "Uncle Meat", "Dog Breath Variations" and "Pound For A Brown" on the other hand are classically influenced (a la Stravinsky) chamber rock pieces with unique instrumentation of clarinets, harpsichord, electric organ, guitar, vibes and sundry other things. The instrumentation is rich and the multi-instrumentation of talented cats like Bunk Gardner and Ian Underwood gives the album the kind of colorful and multi-layered feel which is unique even in Zappa's oeuvre.

The CD version of Uncle Meat tends to be marred with so-called "penalty tracks", which are audio excerpts from the "Uncle Meat" film and a cheesy hard rock song "Tengo Na Minchia Tanta" from 80s. Vinyl version is much recommended if such factors are annoying and subtracting from the album that I'd highly recommend for lovers of complex, yet totally far-out and weird music.