Spanking Audio

With George Clinton, a humorous phrase could be nothing more than playful tomfoolery, or it could be a double entendre with a deep political meaning. The phrase "electric spanking of war babies" falls into the latter category – it referred to what the funk innovator saw as the U.S. government using the media to promote imperialistic wars. To Clinton, the American media functioned as a propaganda machine during wartime. But whether or not one cares to examine its hidden political messages, Electric Spanking is an above-average party album. Spanking falls short of the excellence of One Nation Under a Groove and Uncle Jam Wants You and didn't boast a major hit single, but amusing funk smokers like "Electro-Cuties" and "Funk Gets Stronger" aren't anything to sneeze at, nor is the reggae-influenced "Shockwaves." Spanking turned out to be the last album Clinton would produce under the name Funkadelic - when he hit the charts again in 1983, Mr. P-Funk was billing himself as a "solo artist."

Utopianisti is Finnish composer/multi-instrumentalist/producer Markus Pajakkala's brainchild, started in 2010. It's a studio project where the line-up changes for every song. Pajakkala plays the drums, woodwinds and some keyboards himself and composes and engineers all the material. Guest musicians are plenty, from different genres - classically trained, jazz, folk and rock musicians. The style is mostly instrumental, energetic jazz-rock / eclectic prog with occasional leaps towards Balkan gypsy music, tango, avant-garde, latin or even operatic metal. Pajakkala is also a key member in the band Poutatorvi.

Colin Towns + NDR Big Band - Frank Zappa's Hot Licks (And Funny Smells) (2005) {Rent A Dog}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 442 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 156 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 170 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2005 Rent A Dog / Provocateur Records / NDR | rad 2007-2
Jazz / Jazz Rock / Experimental Big Band

If this scorching live set is anything to go by, the November tour by Germany's NDR Big Band playing Colin Towns' arrangements of Frank Zappa classics will be unmissable. One-time rock keyboardist Towns (who worked for Deep Purple star Ian Gillan) became a film and TV composer, then a jazz bandleader, and the founder and funder of creative indie label Provocateur Records. His writing for big jazz ensembles mixes rock, improv, postbop and a slashing Stravinskyesque melodic wildness - but the result often comes at you with a visceral energy of such heat that it melts the edges.

Frank Zappa – The Dub Room Special! (2007) {Zappa Records ZR 20006}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 495 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 155 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 46 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2007 Zappa Records / ZFT / Universal | ZR 20006
Rock / Jazz Rock / Experimental Rock / Art Rock

Official Release #81. The Dub Room Special is an album by Frank Zappa, released in August 2007. It is a soundtrack for the film of the same name, and combines recordings from a TV-show performance on August 27, 1974, and from a concert in New York City on October 31, 1981. The album, originally prepared for vinyl release by Zappa, was first sold at Zappa Plays Zappa shows in the United States during August 2007. Shortly thereafter, it became available for mail order.

Frank Zappa - Make A Jazz Noise Here (1991) {2CD Rykodisc RCD 10555/56 rel 1995}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 919 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 324 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 228 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1991, 1995 Rykodisc / The Zappa Family Trust | RCD 10555/56
Rock / Experimental Rock / Jazz Rock / Art Rock

Official Release #57. The third and final live album put together from recordings of Frank Zappa's 1988 concerts, the two-CD set Make a Jazz Noise Here focuses on the composer's instrumental pieces – which are not necessarily jazzy, by the way. As for the three vocal tracks included ("Stinkfoot," "Stevie's Spanking," and "Advance Romance"), they all feature interesting solos. The set presents old favorites, like the medley "Let's Make the Water Turn Black"/"Harry, You're a Beast," "King Kong," and "The Black Page." They are well-performed, but considering the number of versions of each of them available on other recordings, they hardly constitute the main interest of this album.

By 1981, Frank Zappa’s Halloween shows in New York were already legendary – a rock and roll bacchanalia of jaw-dropping musicianship, costume-clad revelry, spontaneous theatrical hijinks and of course a heavy dose of Zappa’s signature virtuosic guitar workouts. Eagerly anticipated every year, fans never knew exactly what was in store but knew it would be of epic proportions and one-of-a-kind experience that only Zappa and his skilled group of musicians could provide. When Zappa returned to The Palladium in NYC in 1981 for a five-show four-night run from October 29 to November 1, the nearly-annual tradition was even more anticipated than usual as the 1980 concerts were cut short due to Zappa falling ill. Curiously there was no fall tour the previous year and thus no Halloween shows.

Frank Zappa - Puttin' On The Ritz (2014) {2CD Goldfish Records GOLF009 rec 1981}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.10 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 361 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 33 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1981, 2014 Goldfish Records | GOLF009
Rock / Experimental Rock / Avant-Garde / Art Rock / Jazz Rock

By the closing months of 1981 Frank Zappa had already released five albums during that productive year. Three of these records were his instrumental guitar collections - Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar, Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More, and The Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar - initially sold via mail order but later released through CBS. There was also the live double Tinseltown Rebellion and the 2-LP studio set You Are What You Is, released in September. Zappa also hit the road in September 81, performing a largely domestic tour that criss-crossed the US and took in a couple of shows in Canada between September and Christmas. On board for the tour were Frank s latest touring band, comprising Chad Wackerman on drums, Ed Mann on percussion, Tommy Mars on keyboards, Scott Thunes on bass, with Steve Vai and Ray White on guitar.

Released in October 1984, Them or Us is Frank Zappa's last studio rock album (unless one counts Thing-Fish). It contains a little of everything for everyone, but most of all it has that cold and dry early-'80s feel that made this and other albums like The Man From Utopia and Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention sound dated pretty quickly. The record begins and ends with covers. "The Closer You Are" is one of those '50s R&B tunes the man loved so much. As for the Allman Brothers' "Whippin' Post," it answered a request from an audience member in Helsinki back in 1974 (go figure). In between one finds the usual offensive lyrics - the cliché-ridden "In France," the sexually explicit "Baby, Take Your Teeth Out." Crunchy guitars are found in "Ya Hozna" and "Stevie's Spanking" (named after Steve Vai, playing guitar in it, too), arguably one of Zappa's best straightforward rock songs from that period…