>> To be honest, the early MOI don't play too good. And the recording technology
>> of 60's is nothing worth of conserving. Would you listen to, say, Beethoven's
>> 5th recorded in 30's? There's nothing wrong to rerecord the music, if you do it
>> with good taste. (In general FZ has good taste.)
>>
>> The sound quality is, whether we like it or not, one of the most important
>> things when listening to music. That's why I like 'Jazz From Hell' so much...
>> Everything must be as clear as possible. Everything must be close to perfect.
>
>Frank is clearly readapting his sound to the requirements of today's markets,
>and/or a new and more obvious sense of aesthetics. Pehaps he had very little control over the sound quality of the earlier works but to me the whole thing about the early mother's stuff is the ugliness of it all. Zappa made ugly music sound beautiful and vice-versa. His music was borne abbrasive and seems best delivered in an abbrassive way.
>
>When I hear a nice digital Sade tune I know the big STROKE's being laid on my ears, now that's psycho-cosmetics ! when I hear the analog Freak-Out I know the big STROKE's going in the opposite psycho-cosmetic direction, because the shit is not easy to listen to. There's all these little things going on in the background that make you want to dig into it - now that's my kind of entertainment !
>
Well, according to the interviews in GP's Zappa magazine, Frank has realized
there are some folks out there who didn't like the updated versions of
his older albums. He alludes that (maybe, possibly) a cleaned up version
of the original material could happen, now that he has "Sonic Solutions".
(the processing software he uses to clean up extraneous noise) So hang in
there.
The more recent newer material "Best Band" and "Make a Jazz" seemed rather
bright to my ears(and to my tweeters) but this is a result of the "live
to digital" format...maybe I'm just used to tape dynamics. I'm surprised
that the Rhino Releases didn't employ slightly more meticulous consideration
when it came to preparing the Boots series for release. I've used my
own eq and compression tecniques on some of these cassettes(for listening
purposes) and it really makes a big difference in the sound quality. It's
obvious that the release of these "entertainment" devices were specifically
arranged as a business deal, and as a novelty item not as "official" Zappa
releases.
all in all, though, I'm pleased as punch that the availability of all these
performances are around and slowly trickling out(though even zappa questions
the value of yet another "pound for a brown") . Now, how do I get into
