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Frank Zappa: The Train I'm On

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Zappa Records
Released: 2015.07.21
Time:
 48:20
Category: Rock
Producer(s): Frank Zappa
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.zappa.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2015
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Dance Me This (F.Zappa) - 2:01
[2] Pachuco Gavotte (F.Zappa) - 3:27
[3] Wolf Harbor (F.Zappa) - 8:02
[4] Wolf Harbor II (F.Zappa) - 6:53
[5] Wolf Harbor III (F.Zappa) - 6:09
[6] Wolf Harbor IV (F.Zappa) - 3:38
[7] Wolf Harbor V (F.Zappa) - 3:09
[8] Goat Polo (F.Zappa) - 3:04
[9] Rykoniki (F.Zappa) - 1:59
[10] Piano (F.Zappa) - 7:09
[11] Calculus (F.Zappa/T.Yvega) - 4:49

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Frank Zappa - Synclavier Realization, Guitar, Producer, Arrangements
Anatolii Kuular - Vocals
Kaigl-Ool Khovalyg - Vocals
Kongar-Ol Ondar - Vocals
Todd Yvega - Algorithm & Synclavier Assistance, Liner Notes

Gail Zappa - Art Direction
Michael Mesker - Package Design
Dan Eldon - Illustration
Ralph Leighton - Liner Notes
Melanie Starks - Production Manager

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded in 1993, Utility Muffin Research Kitchen UMRK.



The last album that guitarist Frank Zappa worked on prior to his death in December 1993 will finally be released this June. Titled Dance Me This, the LP is considered the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's 100th and final official release, ending a legacy that began with the Mothers of Invention's landmark 1966 album Freak Out! According to a pre-order page on the Zappa official site, Dance Me This is due out June 1st.

In talking to Guitar Magazine prior to his death at the age of 52, Zappa described his final LP as "a Synclavier album called Dance Me This, which is designed to be used by modern dance groups. It's probably not going to come out until next year," the Guardian reports. The album was ultimately shelved indefinitely, and while a steady stream of posthumous releases and reissues have satisfied Zappa fans in the following decades, Dance Me This was all but forgotten until Zappa's widow Gail Zappa began hinting at the final album's eventual arrival in 2011.

According to the Zappa Family Trust, Dance Me This is "the last title FZ finished in 1993 along with Trance-Fusion; the last chapter in his Master Work, Civilization Phaze III." "This is it. #100. The LAST album by Frank Zappa. Tap your foot algorithmically to this, " the estate adds. The album's title track reportedly features a recording of Tuvan "throat singers," members of a northern China tribe that Zappa accompanied with a Synclavier composition.

One of Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarist of All Time, Zappa switched to the Synclavier as his main compositional tool in 1984 with a pair of albums, Francesco Zappa and Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger. Zappa continued to experiment with the pioneering electronic music device even as he battled terminal prostate cancer, resulting in both Dance Me This and 1994's Civilization Phaze III.

Daniel Kreps - April 4, 2015
RollingStone.com



A few years after he was awarded a Grammy for his instrumental album Jazz from Hell, Frank Zappa explained how his synclavier computer program worked while being interviewed by a morning news program. When the anchor inquired if the musical technology being used was threatening to overtake the human element of the music, Zappa dismissively said that his new way of composing and recording did away with human error. In other words, musical accuracy was very important to Zappa. He was famously discouraged with the outcome of recording sessions with the London Symphony Orchestra in the early ‘80s when the esteemed organization failed to prepare themselves for the rigors that Frank Zappa’s complicated scores brought.

By 1984, this very unique voice in rock who was now stretching out to the worlds of chamber and symphonic classical music was learning how to make things work in his favor on the flip side of Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger. From this point forward, the synclavier and its corresponding software were just as much a driving creative force in Zappa’s music than any other tool. It dominated releases such as Francesco Zappa, the aforementioned Jazz from Hell (save for one tracks), and the posthumously released mammoth double album Civilization Phaze III. Dance Me This, Zappa’s 100th release, clings to the musical purity that Zappa strived for through his technology. This could be why the album sat around for more than twenty years after his death; to free itself from context. Dance Me This occupies is a dimension where you don’t analysis whether or not rock music “rocks” or if jazz really “swings”. There are no buzzwords to get in the way, no attitude or swagger. It’s music all the way down.

If you need context, here are the basics: Frank Zappa programmed his synclavier with the assistance of Todd Yvega. Frank Zappa’s son Dweezil Zappa had left his guitar rig set up inside his father’s studio, prompting the elder Zappa to lay down his last known recorded guitar performance. Three throat singers from the Republic of Tuva were on tour and stopped by for a visit. Zappa and Yvega had Anatolii Kuular, Kaigl-Ool Khovalyg, and Kongar-Ool Ondar lay their unique vocal style on top of the music. Completed in 1993 and released in 2015, Dance Me This is a modern smorgasbord of sounds that somehow doesn’t turn the page to navel noodling. What initially comes across as chaotic will eventually reveal an impressive overall arc. It is wild and coherent—you know, a Frank Zappa album.

When discussing the content of Dance Me This, you have to dive into an area of the album where guitars and throat singers are absent. This is the musique concrète-esque suite “Wolf Harbor”, whose five movements take up just a little more than half the album’s length. This collection of sampled sounds may not be, at its core, an electro-acoustic work, but it certainly behaves like one. Dripping water, humidity-soaked sirens, metal clangs, intricately delivered percussion, castanets, and ghostly high-pitched tones prove to be as hypnotic a combination as the best ambient music on the market. The title “Wolf Harbor” feels appropriate, though it’s difficult to pinpoint why.

The strange suite is book-ended by compositions that carry Zappa’s unique sense of sophistication but still manage to leave an imprint on your mind. The title track begins the album like it were a slowed-down and tonally reverent version of Jazz From Hell. For “Pachuco Gavotte”, the dance becomes harder to pin down as keyboard and percussion are seemingly at odds with one another. The Republic of Tuva trio announce the album’s second half as “Wolf Harbor V” seamlessly hands the baton to “Goat Polo”. “Goat Polo”‘s ever-modulating melody gives the listener a sense of temporary confusion, a feeling that is confirmed when “Rykoniki”‘s stranger yet more reliable melody arrives. The sand blows away for “Piano”, seven minutes of the track’s namesake running through a dizzying series of leap-frogging arpeggios. This may not be the moment that Dance Me This was leading up to, but the track carries a certain weight that would never cause it to be confused for falling action. You can’t say that for closing track “Calculus” either, as “Piano” gently drops the album to the ground so that it can sprint to the finish line. The throat singing keeps pace with the tempo’s tricky ebb-and-flow as the jazz/rock fusion in the background quietly gains momentum. When it’s done, the listener can look forward to that inner debate where one side of the brain asks “What the hell was that, exactly?” while the other sides says “That was kinda cool, let’s hear it again!”

Ratings: 9 out of 10

John Garratt - 21 July 2015
© 1999-2015 PopMatters.com



Dance Me This, the last album Frank Zappa recorded before his death in 1993, will be finally released in 2015. Joining his extensive discography – which begins with 1966’s Freak Out and includes approximately 100 releases – the album gets a release date of 1 June.

Despite news of the long-anticipated album initially emerging on April Fool’s Day on Zappa’s website, the post still remains online with a pre-order link and a message that urges fans to “Tap your foot algorithmically to this!”

Frank Zappa died of prostate cancer in December 1993, aged 52. Speaking with Guitarist Magazine before his death, he explained that he was working on a new album, describing it as “a Synclavier album called Dance Me This, which is designed to be used by modern dance groups. It’s probably not going to come out until next year.”

The Zappa estate has released a number of posthumous albums by the artist over the past decade. Rumours of Dance Me This’s release have been circulating for some time, and it is said that promo cassettes for his final album surfaced in 2004, even though the record never got an official release.

According to JamBase, an email from Zappa’s family describes Dance Me This as “the last title FZ finished in 1993 along with Trance-Fusion; the last chapter in his Master Work, Civilization, Phase III; and of course, The Rage & The Fury, The Music of Edgard Varèse.”

Dance Me This is cited as Zappa’s 100th album, with titles including Pachuco Gavotte, Goat Polo and five movements of Wolf Harbor.

The Guardian - 3 April 2015



Dance Me This is a studio album by Frank Zappa, released posthumously in 2015 by The Zappa Family Trust on Zappa Records. In the liner notes by Todd Yvega, he comments, "It is remarkable that Frank was able to construct such a cohesive arc, juxtaposing and superimposing such disparate materials, some of which had been in the works for years, while others were the fruit of the previous week's happenstance. Thrown into the creative mix were the incidentals (it was FZ's bent to be open to changing course and making use of whatever happens along). Earlier that year, the Zappas were graced with a visit from a trio of throat singers from the Republic of Tuva in southern Siberia who were on a US concert tour. Naturally a recording session ensued, and the Tuvans' vocals ultimately became prominent on several tracks. Dweezil had set up his guitar rig in the studio, and Frank decided to take it for a spin overdubbing on the piece we were tracking that day. As far as we know, that was the last time he played guitar. This is Official Release #100."

Wikipedia.org
 

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