Member:
AdmKirk
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by AdmKirk)
Date:
11/14/2006
Format:
CD (Album)
Trance-Fusion is Frank Zappa's third album to feature his guitar solo's following 1981's Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar 3 LP box set and 1988's two disc Guitar. Trance-Fusion is only a 1 disc set, but it's a damn good one. In these days of dropped d tunings, speed metal riffs and 7-string guitar, it's nice to hear someone who knew a thing or two about sculpting a solo. FZ has at it on 16 tracks like no body else can.
The only track that is immediately recognizable by title is "Chunga's Revenge", however, all of these solos are taken from instrumental sections of more well known pieces such as "Easy Meat". No need to go into some long winded dissertation on the solo's themselves as anyone who has ever had the pleasure of hearing FZ play either live or on record has a good idea of what to expect and for those who haven't, well, I'd suggest picking this up immediately to see for themselves why FZ is considered one of the greatest guitarists of any era.
These tracks stretch back as far as 1977 and go up until 1988, his last tour and the first and last cuts feature Dweezil Zappa as well. The majority of these tracks feature the 1988 band that included Mike Keneally, Chad Wackerman, Scott Thunes and Bobby Martin among others.
One of the nice things about this, FZ's 79th official release, is that, although posthumous, it wasn't constructed from a bunch of tapes Dweezil found at UMRK. FZ completed this album shortly after he learned he was going to meet Elvis. This was one of the projects that he decided to finish off before he died. I'm surprised it took 13 years for this to come out and I'm sure if Frank was still here he would have put together a more Zappaesque cover than a bunch of dolphins that form he trademark moustache.
If you’re a long time Zappa fan, then this will certainly be a great addition and if you are new to FZ's work then this is a great place to start but be warned, enjoyment of this material could cause one spend a small fortune on the other 78 official Frank Zappa releases.
Bill
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