Back catalogue: Rock

Review: Weirdo guitar visionary Frank Zappa released his acclaimed fourth LP 'Waka/Jawaka' in 1972, after the phrase appeared to him miraculously on an ouija board. A pinnacle of jazz fusion, near-classical orchestral influences and prog rock, it serves as a lesser-known sequel-ish to the generally agreed classic Hot Rats. It's also a shining example of time signature-core, with the moustached axe mage modulating all manner of tempos like it's nobody's business, also setting a high bar for what would eventually become post-rock in the process.

Review: Originally released in 1972, The Grand Wazoo is the eighth album by Frank Zappa and The Mothers. It was the second album Zappa had to record in a wheelchair following an on-stage assault in 1971, and it found the psychedelic jazz rock fusionist expanding his musical stamp with a bigger band dynamic. The music on the album is largely instrumental, following on from Hot Rats, Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Waka/Jawaka as another bold, bonkers excursion into the furrows of Zappa's highly creative mind. It's been some time since this gem was in print, and it's now comfortably resting into the chunky grooves of an 180 gm pressing, no less.

Review: It's not easy to pick out obvious hits from Frank Zappa's frankly intimidating musical legacy, but 1969's Hot Rats must surely be one of his most widely adored albums. As such, this special archival project is the stuff of dreams for his devotees, of which there are more than a few. Much has been said about the reams of unreleased material hidden away in his vaults, but now an attentive team have pored over sessions recorded in 1970, not long after Hot Rats was released, and they've pieced together a whole new album of songs never previously heard by anyone bar those who were in the studio at the time.

Review: A retrospective compilation of previously unreleased Frank Zappa tracks, anyone? The enigma left behind an incredible legacy in his 30 year career, time on stage spanning the majority of a life that was cut far too short, although by that point he'd already been lucky to survive an arson incident in Switzerland that left him with head trauma, numerous fractures, back, neck, and leg injuries and a crushed larynx that caused his voice to drop significantly after recovery. The incident also gave audience members Deep Purple inspiration for their seminal track, 'Smoke On The Water', but that's another story. Digressions aside, the tracks here are plucked from different periods in that inimitable storied history, but they all share political themes with an overriding anti-establishment message. A number also involve the Synclavier, one of the earliest digital synths, polyphonic sampling systems and music workstations ever created.

Review: Over-Nite Sensation has been long-hailed as the gateway drug into Frank Zappa’s extensive musical universe, after which there really is no going back. Now reissued and expanded by the Zappa estate, the album returns to the foreground again, in several formats, including one CD with over 57 unreleased and rare studio and live tracks piled on top of the original seven magnum opi. This edition, however, is an audiophile standard 2xLP edition, just as Uncle Meat intended from the jump. From the opening princely funk of ‘Dirty Love’ to the midway scattings of ‘Dinah-Moe Humm’ and the closing yippee-ki-yays of ‘Montana’, this album should be best remembered not only as FZ's sexiest, but coincidingly as the one on which music’s most notorious Bonnie & Clyde, Ike and Tina Turner, were enlisted to aid Zappa for the closing track, but were ultimately not credited due to a poor performance, by Zappa’s assessment.

Review: "The Mothers of Invention cordially invite you to join them on Tuesday, July 23, 1968, when they will be taking over the Whisky a Go Go for five full hours of unprecedented merriment, which will be secretly recorded for an upcoming record album. Dress optional. Starting sometime in the evening. R.S.V.D.T." So the ad in the LA Free Press allegedly read. Five hours? Unprecedented merriment? Frank Zappa at the height of the 1960s youth awakening? Sounds decent to us, as does this package, pieced together from scraps of bits captured during that concert. A genuine ride into the wonderful insanity of a band that remain pretty much out there on their own in the great universe of rock & roll, its bluesy, proggy, funky, folky, punk-y business. And it could only be Zappa.