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Title: Lumpy Gravy
By: Zappa, Frank
Released by: RYKO
Released on: 1968
Rating (out of 10): 10
Date: 06/26/2001
Go Ahead Ota..
Leaving Kitchen Stadium, we approach the time for tasting and judgement.
Let's meet our guest panelists. Joining us today on the judging panel are musician and guest commentator Korn, politician Kurimoto Shinichiro, pop star Rob Thomas, and culinary critic Kishi Asako. Thank you for being here, judges.
Chef Zappa has carefully blended a variety of ingredients to prepare today's theme meal, Lumpy Gravy. Straying from conventional cooking (claiming that "round things are boring"), he has created a complex arrangement of classical and jazz instrumentals with early sampling and seemingly random dialogue. Indeed, this should be a very spicy entree.
For Lumpy Gravy, Zappa used over sixty collaborators to create a truly original dish. His master instrumental composition begins the meal with trumpet solos reminiscent of the "nostalgic" jazz-age; celeste, harpsichord, keyboard, and piano arrangements over horn and woodwind create the big-band sound that would dominate elevator music for decades. This is much fuller and more complex, however, than the many imitators who would follow. He continues with smooth transitions that make individual elements hard to distinguish from each other, as well as purposefully abrupt transitions to jolt the taster. Intertwined are clips of random conversation with pig sounds and samples of babies.
From the innovation of conversations inside of pianos to interviews about part-time jobs, Zappa layers cacophonic incidental music with clips of Louie the Turkey laughing. The final product is wrapped in roll skin. Each layer offers a different texture to enjoy, along with the nice contrast of somewhat sweet surf-rock on the surface and spicy pig-sounds-over-rock—opera grandiosity in the center.
Guest panelist Korn comments, "I think Zappa will agree that the random intervention of dialogue goes well with the incidental music. He seems to have created the first truly original fluid album that is only interrupted by the fact that, by nature of the piece, it must be experienced in two parts. I've never seen a dish so appropriately versatile. The instrumentals can be trying, but the complexity absorbs the essence of the theme ingredient to deepen this simple dish. Normally, a recipe like this uses satire to recreate over-used clichés in an already established genre, but Zappa's rock-opera of instrumentals, nostalgia and dialogue always work well together." Korn really loved this dish; he closed his eyes and just said "Saikoh (perfect)".
Kurimoto Shinichiro agrees, "Chef Zappa's use of innovative composition creates an anti-psychedelia. At a time when drug culture was dominating the scene, Zappa proved that density in music can be established without the use of questionable substances. Zappa's specialty (pop-music foolery and classical dissonance-textured sauce) doesn't go down smoothly, but it's a very memorable and lasting masterpiece." Shinichiro concludes that he was impressed by the overall deep flavor.
Culinary critic Kishi Asako comments, "Zappa is an incredible source of constant inspiration and innovation as he lays out the groundwork for the rest of his career. Lumpy Gravy shows that his incredible pop-sense may never go mainstream, but his composition skills are among the best I have tasted. The simple yet delicate sounds of "Oh No" are appropriately juxtaposed with the harshly cacophonous dialogue dispersion, giving a sucker-punch to conventional pop-music." Asako gives Chef Zappa a thumbs up. "Nice landing, captain!"
Rob Thomas stares down at the original dish and looks flustered. Finally, the pop star guest judge looks up without indulging: "Maybe it's just...you know, food."
© Copyright CultureDose.com 06/26/2001
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