Le Forum Indépendant de la Hifi et des Audiophiles

Le 20 Decembre sort un coffret de 6 CD des sessions de l'album Hot Rats, un des chefs d'oeuvre de Zappa (ce n'est pas le seul):

"Frank Zappa‘s second album Hot Rats is being reissued for its 50th anniversary and formats include a 6CD box set full of previously unreleased sessions.

The 1969 album was the first record to be recorded on a prototype 16-track tape machine and the recording sessions produced a wealth of material that ended up being sprinkled among multiple releases during Frank Zappa’s lifetime.

This box set documents and compiles “every composition recorded during those days in July 1969”, along with an abundance of rare mixes, ‘vault nuggets’ and complete basic tracks. That’s 65 tracks in total, with just the six original album tracks previously released (the 1987 CD mixes). Everything here was mixed from the original multi-track masters by Craig Parker Adams in 2019.

Sleeve notes come courtesy of a certain Matt Groening and there are essays by Ian Underwood, Andee Nathanson and Vaultmeister Joe Travers."

Frank Zappa – guitar, octave bass, percussion
Ian Underwood – piano, organus maximus, flute, all clarinets, all saxes
Captain Beefheart – vocals on "Willie the Pimp"
Max Bennett – bass on all tracks except "Peaches en Regalia"
Shuggie Otis – bass on "Peaches en Regalia"
John Guerin – drums on "Willie the Pimp", "Little Umbrellas" and "It Must Be a Camel"
Paul Humphrey – drums on "Son of Mr. Green Genes" and "The Gumbo Variations"
Ron Selico – drums on "Peaches en Regalia"
Don "Sugarcane" Harris – violin on "Willie the Pimp" and "The Gumbo Variations"
Jean-Luc Ponty – violin on "It Must Be a Camel"
Lowell George – rhythm guitar


CD1

1.  Piano Music (Section 1)
2.  Piano Music (Section 3)
3.  Peaches En Regalia (Prototype)
4.  Peaches En Regalia (Section 1, In Session)
5.  Peaches En Regalia (Section 1, Master Take)
6.  Peaches Jam – Part 1
7.  Peaches Jam – Part 2
8.  Peaches En Regalia (Section 3, In Session)
9.  Peaches En Regalia (Section 3, Master Take)
10. Arabesque (In Session)
11. Arabesque (Master Take)
12. Dame Margret’s Son To Be A Bride (In Session)

CD2

1.  It Must Be A Camel (Part 1, In Session)
2.  It Must Be a Camel (Part 1, Master Take)
3.  It Must Be a Camel (Intercut, In Session)
4.  It Must Be a Camel (Intercut, Master Take)
5.  Natasha (In Session)
6.  Natasha (Master Take)
7.  Bognor Regis (Unedited Master)
8.  Willie The Pimp (In Session)
9.  Willie The Pimp (Unedited Master Take)
10. Willie The Pimp (Guitar OD 1)
11. Willie The Pimp (Guitar OD 2)

CD3

1.  Transition (Section 1, In Session)
2.  Transition (Section 1, Master Take)
3.  Transition (Section 2, Intercut, In Session)
4.  Transition (Section 2, Intercut, Master Take)
5.  Transition (Section 3, Intercut, In Session)
6.  Transition (Section 3, Intercut, Master Take)
7.  Lil’ Clanton Shuffle (Unedited Master)
8.  Directly From My Heart To You (Unedited Master)
9.  Another Waltz (Unedited Master)

CD4

1.  Dame Margret’s Son To Be A Bride (Remake)
2.  Son Of Mr. Green Genes (Take 1)
3.  Son Of Mr. Green Genes (Master Take)
4.  Big Legs (Unedited Master Take)
5.  It Must Be a Camel (Percussion Tracks)
6.  Arabesque (Guitar OD Mix)
7.  Transition (Full Version)
8.  Piano Music (Section 3, OD Version)

CD5

1.  Peaches En Regalia (1987 Digital Re-Mix)
2.  Willie The Pimp (1987 Digital Re-Mix)
3.  Son Of Mr. Green Genes (1987 Digital Re-Mix)
4.  Little Umbrellas (1987 Digital Re-Mix)
5.  The Gumbo Variations (1987 Digital Re-Mix)
6.  It Must Be A Camel (1987 Digital Re-Mix)
7.  The Origin Of Hot Rats
8.  Hot Rats Vintage Promotion Ad #1
9.  Peaches En Regalia (1969 Mono Single Master)
10. Hot Rats Vintage Promotion Ad #2
11. Little Umbrellas (1969 Mono Single Master)
12. Lil’ Clanton Shuffle (1972 Whitney Studios Mix)

CD6

1.  Little Umbrellas (Cucamonga Version)
2.  Little Umbrellas (1969 Mix Outtake)
3.  It Must Be A Camel (1969 Mix Outtake)
4.  Son Of Mr. Green Genes (1969 Mix Outtake)
5.  More Of The Story Of Willie The Pimp
6.  Willie The Pimp (Vocal Tracks)
7.  Willie The Pimp (1969 Quick Mix)
8.  Dame Margret’s Son To Be A Bride (1969 Quick Mix)
9.  Hot Rats Vintage Promotion Ad #3
10. Bognor Regis (1970 Record Plant Mix)
11. Peaches En Regalia (1969 Rhythm Track Mix)
12. Son Of Mr. Green Genes (1969 Rhythm Track Mix)
13. Little Umbrellas (1969 Rhythm Track Mix)
14. Arabesque (Guitar Tracks)
15. Hot Rats Vintage Promotion Ad #

HOT RATS est un de mes albums préférés.

Ce que fait ZAPPA sur WILLIE THE PIMP est totalement hors norme.
Le remix de 1987 de ce morceau est nettement meilleur que le mixage original. Le solo de ZAPPA est trop en retrait alors que sur le remix de 87, le son de guitare a été mis en avant et c'est jouissif.

Lorsque j'écoute le mixage original, je suis un peu frustré. Celui de 87 est dantesque. 
C'est donc une excellente nouvelle que le remix de 87 fait par Zappa lui-même soit inclus dans ce coffret.

J-Luc

L'un des albums cultes du maitre avec Roxy & Elsewhere, Over-nite sensation,One size fits all , The Grand Wazoo, Joe's garage, Waka/Jawaka, .... et tellement d'autres.
Fan depuis l'age de 15 ans.
Vivement Noël !

Mon préféré après HOT RATS, c'est BURNT WEENY SANDWICH.
Les compositions sont incroyables et ZAPPA place quelques solos mémorables.

J-Luc

J'en suis apostrophé !

Advanced recording techniques:

"Zappa used advanced recording equipment to create an album of outstanding technical and musical quality. The album was recorded on what Zappa described as a "homemade sixteen track" recorder; the machine was custom built by engineers at TTG Studios in Hollywood in late 1968. Additional tracks made it possible for Zappa to add multiple horn and keyboard overdubs by Ian Underwood. Only a few musicians were required to create an especially rich instrumental texture which gives the sound of a large group. It was this use of advanced overdubbing that was the main motivation for Zappa, who hated playing in a studio.

Zappa was among the first to record drums on multiple tracks. This made it possible to create a stereo drum sound. Prior to this time the entire drum set was typically recorded to a single (mono) track of an 8-track recorder. On Hot Rats, however, four of the tracks were assigned to the main drum set, including individual tracks for the snare and bass drums and left and right tracks for other drums and cymbals. In this setup the engineer had unprecedented control over the sound of each drum component in the final mix. This technique was widely imitated and became the norm in the early 1970s when machines with 16 or more tracks became widely available.

Zappa pioneered the use of tape speed manipulation to produce unusual timbres and tonal colors. On "Peaches en Regalia", "Son of Mr. Green Genes", and "It Must Be a Camel" Zappa plays "double-speed percussion". After recording basic tracks (drums, bass, guitar and piano, etc.) at the fast speed of the recorder, Zappa played additional drum overdubs while listening to the basic tracks at half speed. On the finished recording, played at normal speed again, the overdubs are heard at twice the usual speed and pitch. This gives the drum overdubs a bizarre, comical quality, much like toy drums.

Other instruments were processed in a similar way, including keyboards, saxophones and bass. Zappa is credited with "octave bass" (a bass guitar sped up to double speed)—the resulting sound is similar to that of a guitar but according to Zappa has more "punch" and energy. Additionally, a processed electronic organ was integrated as an orchestral voice within an ensemble of woodwinds and piano. "It Must Be a Camel" features the sound of a hard plastic comb being stroked, sounding almost like a jerky, audio slow-motion bell tree or wind chime; Zappa also 'plays' a ratchet wrench as percussion on "Willie the Pimp". This was all done with analog technology more than 10 years before modern digital sound processing equipment became available."

Un petit avant gout de la box à paraître le 20 Décembre:



In celebration of HOT RATS’ fiftieth anniversary, “Peaches En Regalia” and “Little Umbrellas” get their first-ever single release:

- Peaches En Regalia (1969 Mono Single Master)
- Little Umbrellas (1969 Mono Single Master)
- Peaches En Regalia (1969 Rhythm Track Mix)
- Little Umbrellas (1969 Rhythm Track Mix)

Salut,
perso je commence à en avoir assez de ces rééditions avec toutes les chutes qui pour beaucoup n'auraient qu'une direction à prendre: la poubelle (et qu'elles avaient prise à l'époque où ces artistes étaient créatifs et un peu exigeants, et pas des ayant droits cherchant à traire la vache jusqu'à la dernière goutte).
 
Les morceaux originaux plus 3 ou 4 bonus suffiraient amplement.
Et le pognon gaspillé sur ces pompes à fric serait mieux utilisé pour acheter des nouveautés et faire vivre les nouveaux artistes.

Par exemple les 65 morceaux de Sgt Peppers sont un peu too much pour moi, sans intérêt de les entendre balbutier, 107 pour l'album blanc !
Idem pour Prince 1999, trop aussi.

C'est devenu la dernière mode marketing, les gens n'achètent plus de matérialisé, alors on va faire un paquet cadeau (pour qui le cadeau?) pour les faire saliver.

Je dois confesser que j'ai eu ces "merveilles" par des voies que la morale et hadopi réprouvent mais je suis bien content de ne pas avoir cotisé pour la pension dorée de Yoko. Après l'achat du vinyle, puis de l'édition CD, parfois en plus de la remastérisation Cd, j'estime avoir assez donné....  
je me suis fait assez avoir, par exemple avec Electric Ladyland: vinyle allemand, puis édition Japonaise (la meilleure), puis le double CD, puis 2 remastérisations pour m'apercevoir que si au premier abord les remasters semblaient meilleurs en réalité ils étaient surgonflés et fatigants, la première édition étant la plus agréable.... 

Jean

Ella & Dweezil Zappa jouent Peaches En Regalia, sympa !





"The highlight of the night came when the very cool Dweezil invited a young lady from Portland to the stage. Her name is Ella Ferguson and she is a sensational violin player!"