LÄTHER

Finally, Läther. Everybody knows the story about this eight-sided LP, now a 3 CD box set, that Warner Bros. didn´t released in the 70´s - "too uncommercial", they said. Well. for those who have Studio Tan, Zappa in New York, Orchestral Favourites and Sleep Dirt, there are no news here. The charming of Läther is that the box is organized the way Zappa wanted in the 70´s, especially the sequence of the songs (as we can see in the booklet inside, including the line-up that played in each song of the box). The repertoire is astonishing, including some very well structured instrumentals, specially in disc two, some zappa bizarre and entertaining acts, especially in disc one, and again complex music and cartoon-like songs, like Gregory Peccary, in disc 3. The discs are heterogeneous anyway, but the idea is well organized, making each disc a unique piece, without intervals between the songs. If you get (and imagine) the album as an original release, picturing how it could be cool in the 70´s, how ambitious it would be, it´s a real pleasure to listen to it. The good thing here is that the album is not a "money-maker", it´s an original idea in it´s original form. Off course, for hardcore fans, it sounds boring, because 90% of the album is not new material. What´s the deal ? Läther is the ideal album to understand Zappa in the second part of the 70´s, with a band including Bozzio, O´Hearn, Jobson, Ruth Underwood, the Brecker brothers, George Duck, Chester, Ray White, lots of real nice musicians. That´s the reason why Läther is so important. It´s a picture of Zappa´s most ambitious, complex and creative moment. For fans still initiated, Läther is a guaranteed entertainment. For newcomers, Läther may sound too bizarre, altough fascinating. For hardcore fans, stop telling bad things about this idea and try to understand it in a an artistical way, and not in a commercial way, giving 2 or 3 stars for a gem like Läther. It´s difficult to imagine a four-LP box in 77, with all these marvelous and strange compositions. Well, it´s Zappa. Now, we can sit, put these CD´s on a player and dream on it. It works. Get it.