CAPTAIN BEEFHEART — Trout Mask Replica (review)

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART — Trout Mask Replica album cover Album · 1969 · Jazz Related Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Warthur
Beefheart's early-era albums - Safe as Milk, Mirror Man, and Strictly Personal - twisted and warped the blues. Trout Mask Replica blew it apart. Given a sparse, raw production job by Frank Zappa, who occasionally pops in with bemused-sounding commentary and directions, the album is proof of two things: first, that Beefheart was a true avant-garde genius in terms of the songs he dreamed up for this album, and second that the relevant lineup of the Magic Band were geniuses when it came to interpreting and actually performing the material!

Although on the first approach the album sounds like an incoherent mass of sound, there are in fact subtle variations build into it; Moonlight On Vermont and Veteran's Day Poppy were recorded a while before the rest of the album, and are very slightly more approachable than the rest of the material, several songs consist entirely of spoken word poetry from Beefheart, and on "The Blimp" the Magic Band take a rest and the Mothers of Invention provide instrumental backing. On the rest of the tracks, the name of the game is strange, angular rhythms played apparently out of sync - but as you listen patterns begin to emerge, the different instruments blending in and out of each other and creating a sonic labyrinth that is, for those who enjoy it, a sheer delight to explore even decades after the fact. Not only the purest expression of Beefheart's personal vision, but a keystone album in RIO and avant-prog. Trout Mask Replica proved that music doesn't have to sound melodious to be moving; sometimes, it doesn't even need to sound like music.
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

LIVE WOUND RESPONSE [OUT​.​FEST 2013] Jazz Related Improv/Composition
RHODRI DAVIES
Buy this album from MMA partners
Dominic Lash, Josh Sinton, Alex Ward Jazz Related Improv/Composition
DOMINIC LASH
Buy this album from MMA partners
Dominic Lash, Pat Thomas : Elements and Properties Jazz Related Improv/Composition
DOMINIC LASH
Buy this album from MMA partners
El Camino Sigiloso Jazz Related Improv/Composition
PAULA SHOCRÓN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lucky All Along Post-Fusion Contemporary
LISA HILTON
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Yo Viné Para Echar Candela
SPANISH HARLEM ORCHESTRA
snobb· 23 hours ago
Ambrose Akinmusire - muffled screams
AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE
snobb· 1 day ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us