Last of the Ghent purchases is an album my father made me a tape of, many years ago. His love of classical and my love pf pop / rock rarely coincided, and I suspect this is one of the few occasions, where the Venn diagram overlapped, to produce something that both of us struggled with.
It's a series of very discordant orchestral pieces, drawing on Zappa's love of modern classical composers such as Stravinsky, Varese and Stockhausen, and I can't claim to understand it.
It's interesting rather than engaging, and the style is such that there seems little that is distinct about the individual tracks, so I won't be whistling any of the tunes as I walk to the shops in the morning. I suspect much was composed by Zappa on his Synclavier, with the intent of making it far too difficult for humans to play, but Boulez seems to have made it work somehow (even if it's such that they can get away with a bum note, because there's little conventional key structure).
So, Zappa obsessives, and lovers of modern classical music might get this, but sadly, I don't. That isn't to say there aren't some interesting moments - Outside Now Again is a transcription of Zappa's guitar solo from the track on Joe's Garage, but as I said, interesting rather than wholly enjoyable
2* - the occasional flash of inspiration, but most of this is hard going, for completists
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