THE YOUNG LOVERS

The Locals was a short lived German band fronted by the German composer/musician Michael Rietzke. This was their only studio album.

Rietzke must have been infatuated with Frank Zappa, as this album strains to imitate Zappa's stylings, from Uncle Meat through the late 1970's. There are bluesy tracks, with Rietzke speaking in a Zappa-like deep drone, a la "I'm The Slime", "Uncle Meat" inspires fusion, slick marimba filled fusion similar to the mid-seventies Zappa troupe, and even short, odd inserts with heavily modified voices. Oh, and don't forget the raunchy lyrics.

It's hit or miss. Andreas Herdy's marimba is good, but how could it possibly compare to Ruth Underwood, the percussionist extraordinaire? Compositionally it's pleasing to the Zappaphile, with many of Frank's signature passages, particularly quintuplets and septuplets. And Reitzke does a fairly decent Zappa flavored guitar solo on one track.

This is a pleasant, but light album, and worth it for the hard-core Zappa enthusiast (like myself), but by no means essential. When I want Zappa, I usually go for the real thing.