#TROUT MASK REPLICA PLUS#

When Big Joan Sets Up starts at a fast pace with Don almost coughing out the lyrics during the magic band playing to a jazz beat, catchy and frenetic before the band almost stop playing, apart from the odd little noise here, there, everywhere before the band all start up again at the same exhausting pace. Pena has Don screaming and shouting in the background whilst guitarist Victor Hayden (The Mascara Snake) is heard almost painfully reading out line after line of weird warbling’s. My absolute favourite tracks appear near the end of the record. Pachuco Cadaver has a mad hated vocal intro before a catchy blues beat jumps in ahead of the usual nonsensical playing is heard again. Dachau Blues has growling aggressive lyrics, Hair Pie incorporates a clarinet solo like nothing you’ve heard before. Ella Guru delights with a catchy vocal duet with the well know Fast ‘n Bulbous quote.įurther personal highlights include The Dust Blows Forward ‘n The Dust Blows Back features Don poetically vocalising a blend of short twisted sentences. The Blimp, with guitarist Jeff ‘Antennae Jimmy Siemens’ Cotton reading a poem whilst practiced chaos is heard in the background. Perky, dysfunctional guitar, tin hat drums with the growling voice of Don jump into the speakers with exuberant optimism, this creature is just breathing its first breaths of air. My personal choice tracks from the album include opening track Frownland. But, whatever the background to this collection, I love it. With Don’s often jibber jabber lyrics shouted, sung and screamed over the microphone, anyone might think these songs were produced at some sort of lunatic asylum, maybe you’re right to think that. To think they came to make sense of the song structures and repeat them is a feet not to be brushed off lightly. The Magic Band are in the literal sense of the word – magicians of their craft, not 2 chord structures are the same on the record – making light work of the odd, often ridiculous requests put in front of them. When it actually came to record the record in the studio with producer Frank Zappa the band recorded 20 of the songs in less than six hours. Other accomplished musicians have tried to match the band’s sound with little if any joy. To think the band were directed to play these compositions as you hear them is unthinkable.

To pull off an album like this is beyond human thinking, or so it would seem. A vast, majestic, convoluted work but with total genius at the helm in Don Gle Vliet. However, from these dank / dark surroundings Trout Mask Replica flourishes, jitters and sprouts into something of wonderment. Drummer John ‘Drumbo’ French describes food being scarce, cups of Soybeans were the dietary speciality unless family and friends helped out, which was sparse.

Rehearsals would last for 14 hours or more a day, with band members restricted by Don to leave the house only for grocery trips.

#TROUT MASK REPLICA PLUS#

Previous band members were replaced with younger new recruits (guitarist Bill Harkleroad and bassist Mark Boston were each just 19), plus with each band member was given a nicknames that Don only referred to them by. Trout Mask Replica, described as Don’s magnum opus, started with The Magic Band locked up a house for six months on Ensenada Drive in Woodland Hills, L.A, which would be renamed The Magic Band House.

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