Released: December 1999
Tracklist- Library Card
- This Is A Test
- Jolly Good Fellow
- Roland’s Big Event/Strat Vindaloo
- Master Ringo
- T’Mershi Duween
- Nap Time
- 9/8 Objects
- Naked City
- Whitey (Prototype)
- America Goes Home
- None Of The Above (Revised & Previsited)
- Wonderful Tattoo
Line-up
ENSEMBLE MODERN: Peter Rundel Hilary Sturt Thomas Fichter Catherine Milliken Wolfgang Stryi Franck Ollu William Formann Uwe Dierksen Daryl Smith Ueli Wiget Rumi Ogawa-Helferich Detlef Tewes Mathias Tacke Friedemann DS�hn Dietmar Wiesner Roland Diry Veit Scholz Stefan Dohr Michael Gross Michael Svoboda Hermann Kretzschmar Rainer Rs�mer Andreas Bs�ttger J¨rgen Ruck – L. Shankar, Frank Zappa
The liner notes says these are only rehearsals – that’s true. It’s strange to hearn Amnerika and None Of The Above – and to find out how much BETTER they are on YS and Civilization… Strange to hear that sometimes the Ensemble is not really together. Nice moments: T’Mershi Duween, 9/8 Objects… I don’t listen to it too often.
I found this album strangely easier listening than Yellow Shark or much of Civ Phaze III.
The free-wheeling often chaotic nature really helps open the music up for me.
Definitely worth pursuing if your anything more than a casual Zappa fan – it is much more than out-takes from YS. I bought it with Civ III from http://www.zappa.com and delivered to Australia for a very reasonable cost. Also the packaging is superb the red felt cover is awesome!
Feebles
I listen to this album on a boring day, and it always cheers me up. Tracks like ‘T’Mershi Duween’ and even ‘Master Ringo’ make me feel better. ‘Amnerika’ is only off by a little bit compared to the Synclavier version–but these ARE real people, and not a machine. This is a great glance into THE YELLOW SHARK, and what could’ve been on the disc (if it were extended). I bought this with CP III, and it was a great pair of wonderful albums. Deluxe packaging was worth it alone, that felt cover is wondeful…..if only there was a good way to keep it safe next to CP III.
Roland’s Big Event/Strat Vindaloo is essential Zappa.
The rest of the material is very unbalanced: improv’s that sometimes work (or have great moments that could have been edited) and rehearsels.
It’s like the fallable, human side of Yellow Shark and Civilisation Phase III. Nice for hard core fans, but I wouldn’t use it as an introduction for the newbies.
This must be one of the most underrated Zappa records ever. I tend to view it as the Ensemble Modern version of Weasels Ripped My Flesh. It goes against the grain, it seems almost random in places, and yet it is full of art, invention and melancholy. Do we ever get closer to the doomed, yet vibrant creativity of Zappa’s twilight? Nap time, Strat Vindaloo. A dark, painful beauty.