ZAPPA '80: MUDD CLUB/MUNICH

The Mudd Club set combines very new material - with selections from Sheik Yerbouti and Joe's Garage as well as material which would eventually wind up on You Are What You Is - along with quite old stuff material like Chunga's Revenge, with tunes originating from the 1973-1975 incarnation of the Mothers absent more or less entirely, which perhaps is indicative of a desire by Zappa to move on from songs he'd played rather extensively. The longer Munich set covers more ground.

That's fine in principle, but the particular renditions of the material here I'm not so keen on - the keyboard sound in particular is rather thin and muzak-y, Zappa being the technophile he was having been an early adopter of these 1980s synths but not quite having best practice down in terms of how they're used. Between this and a fairly syrupy take on some of the songs, and fairly lukewarm production at points (Zappa's vocals in particular are a bit fuzzy), this set ends up being rather inessential.