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Trout Mask Replica

Captain Beefheart Audio CD
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Audio CD (5 Sep 2006)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Reprise
  • ASIN: B000005JA8
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,031 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

1. Frownland
2. The Dust Blows Forward 'N The Dust Blows Back
3. Dachau Blues
4. Ella Guru
5. Hair Pie: Bake I
6. Moonlight In Vermont
7. Pachuco Cadaver
8. Bills Corpse
9. Sweet Sweet Bulbs
10. Neon Meate Dream Of A Octafish
11. China Pig
12. My Human Gets Me Blues
13. Dali's Car
14. Hair Pie: Bake II
15. Pena
16. Well
17. When Big Joan Sets Up
18. Fallin' Ditch
19. Sugar 'N Spikes
20. Ant Man Bee
See all 28 tracks on this disc

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk

Probably the strangest album to regularly make critics' Top 100 Records of All Time, Trout Mask Replica is a landmark of idiosyncratic and visionary music-making. Don Van Vliet (christened Captain Beefheart by one-time colleague Frank Zappa) and The Magic Band rehearsed this record for over a year, translating Beefheart's ideas into fully fleshed-out pieces: although the record on first listen appears spontaneous and improvised, it is in fact carefully constructed, as the instrumental versions on the Grow Fins box-set demonstrate. Trout Mask Replica fuses blues, freeform jazz, rock, and Beefheart's surreal lyrics into an initially perplexing and daunting blend, in which the two guitars, drums and bass of10 seem to be playing four different songs at once--but over time, the music's angular, discordant shapes and rhythms not only begin to make sense, but take on an eccentric beauty. For those unfamiliar with Beefheart's work, check out the definitive compilation The Dust Blows Forward, or start with the luminously remastered Safe As Milk and Mirror Man. Both are essential records, but the man's mythical reputation begins and ends with the legacy of Trout Mask Replica. --Burhan Tufail

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
54 of 56 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greats 5 April 2006
Format:Audio CD
Ok so you've never heard Beefheart before, you heard about him through listening to Zappa or reading one of those twenty billion top fifty album thingy's in a music magi etc. Am I right? Well if I am then you should buy this album....I don't think your going to like it, well at least your first listen. You'll put it on and hear noise. Nonsensical, chaotic, dissonant noise. The sort of sound that comes from a bunch of people who have never played an instrument in their lives. It will hurt your head. But that will pass, put it aside and go back to it again and again. Eventually you'll hear it in a completely different way. The dissonant noise you used to hear are in fact melodies, just melodies you've never heard before, the crashing sounds are in fact extremely complex rhythms and time signatures that have up until the point of this albums creation have never really been used. That's the magic band explained now lets move onto Beefheart himself.

I first listened to Captain Beefhearts vocals on this album and couldn't understand why so many people considered him to be of a genius status. He just seems to shout, there's not much of a melody coming from his vocals its just him yelling words. But that's just it, listen to the words, read the lyrics, he's not a singer he's a poet, a poet with the wildest imagination.

Trout Mask Replica is without a doubt one of the hardest albums in the history of popular music to grasp, but it is also the most rewarding. After understanding this album I've been able to look at music in a completely different way, and truly appreciate the skill of these musicians. How they were able to create this music when listening to what came before them is to me incomprehensible (if you know of any bands before them that made anything remotely similar please let me know). But most importantly I grew to love these songs. Sure even today there's a few of them that I flick over but not many of them, each song is a burst of experimental rock bliss that makes you think about what you put into your ears. The songs are genius, the album is genius, BEEFHEART IS A GENIUS!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Music for wallabies 27 Feb 2010
Format:Audio CD
I am the manager of a wallaby farm in the Flow Country of Sutherland. At certain times of the year, when the dust blows forward and the dust blows back, the wallabies become restive but we keep them manageable by playing very loud music. We have experimented with many artists and genres but this is the only album in all of popular music history that subdues them completely. When the musicians play in different time signatures they break down into little groups, one group nodding its heads with the drums, another tapping its feet to the slide guitar, a third switching its tails with the Captain himself. They are motionless, mesmerised by the sheer metaphysical force of the unaccompanied Well. With this music they cannot go back to that Frownland. We thought maybe they liked just complexity and tried Mahavishnu Orchestra and King Crimson and Magma but all those excellent bands seemed self-conscious and a bit serious by comparison and they soon got unmanageable again. Those late records, Doc at the Radar Station and so on, they're also excellent but they're not quite in the same place as Trout Mask Replica and the wallabies' behaviour shows they agree. So the wallabies and me, we think it's ridiculous that TMR averages out at a lower Amazon star rating than Ice Cream for Crow, for instance. Our theory is that TMR is so famous that people are attracted to it who are just never going to get it and they wind up slating what they can't understand. I explain this to them and they nod sadly.
We're sure the Captain would like the word "wallaby" and we imagine a Magic Band tribute group: the Bulbous Wallabies. Sadly the great black birds that wheel overhead are not the same that gather outside the Captain's porch and it'll never happen. No matter, we still have this unparalleled masterpiece.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Sorry not tonight pal, regulars only 24 Oct 2012
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Sits down with cup of coffee, scratches head, tries to figure out how the hell to review this album objectively, candidly and above all else, truthfully. Well here's a clue, check out my title of this review. Exactly. Those of you who live in Republic Of Ireland (and maybe the UK?) will know exactly what i'm referring to with it. For everyone else... lets say it's Saturday night. You're looking forward to a night on the tiles after your average run-of-the-mill crappy week. You approach a bar/nightclub sober as a judge and the doorman very unpolitely utters those immortal words.

That's pretty much how I feel about this album. It's like I'm trying to gain access to this highly exclusive club, trying through numerous listens like i've been instructed to (havn't you heard? You need to listen to it TEN times to "get it"). While i'll certainly agree that great music is worth striving for, does it have to be at the expense of mild suffering (don't shoot me!)

Upon reading numerous reviews on this highly controversial album, it seems as though it has this rabid hardcore following that if they see or hear ANYBODY speaking ill of this daring piece of work they'll slap you on the wrist, tell you you're a bold boy, and send you to bed without any supper. Very sensitive bunch. Maybe it's a sign of the times but i've seen people handing out cyber DEATH THREATS over a show called The Wire. Apples and oranges I know, just using it as an example of some peoples fanboyism (yes I used the "F word).

Onto the songs and everything else. "Frownland" opens it up and straight away everything you've come to know about "normal" music will kick in and tell you to NOT like it. This is where peoples opinions/theories etc get interesting. You see this albums style is like nothing you've ever heard of. Take "Back In Black" by AC/DC for instance. Compare this side by side with "Frownland" and you get two types of music totally at odds with each other, when you look up the meaning for "Opposite ends of the spectrum" these two songs will come up. One (Back In Black) is trying to tie you into the groove, that perfect kick/snare/high-hat pounding groove that you simply MUST dance to. It's catchy music done to a tee.

Now back to "Frownland", "Dachau Blues", (a brilliantly sinisterpiece of songwriting), "Pachuco Cadaver", "Bills Corpse", and numerous others of it's ilk. They take melody, harmony and everything we've become accustomed to regards popular music and turn it on it's head. At first it feels like your ears are being raped, but here's my point. I was listening to a Jamie T song about a year ago called "Salvadore". The song had reached it's pre-chorus and after a certain chord/lyric I was certain it was going to go up a key, it didn't and at first I was horrified. "That sounds awful, why didn't he do what he was supposed to do....SUPPOSED to do. Since when did music become bound by rules? Suffice to say that by this stage i've grown fond of the segment/song, and it's all down to informing my brain that "no it's going to stay in the same key remember". It's accepted the change, much like people are arguing about within these hallowed comment sections, you have to abandon EVERYTHING you're used to, put in the grind, and you'll get your rewards (more on this theory later).

The album does have innovations, skits for example. We all know them from rap albums, Eminem relies heavely on them for comic relief/shock value. Much like Wu-tang Clan, Dr.Dre etc. This man (Captain Beefheart) pioneered the idea, they're very sketchy but hey, they're the first of their kind. If you want to know if there's ANY conventional songs to be found on this double (yes originally DOUBLE) album, then i'd have to say the only one that seems worthy to be digestable by Joe public would be....."Moonlight On Vermont", and that would be pushing it. Another thing to mention are the "poems" included here and there, purposely badly recorded (you can hear each section ending by a loud sound and being spliced together) another welcome twist, but they do get a bit tedious.

Back to my earlier comment regarding repeated listening offering rewards. This statement holds some creedence but let me make one thing clear. Lets say you lock me in a room and continuosly play Justin Bieber or One Direction (an artist and boyband I cannot stand) or constant re-runs of the god-awful X Factor for days on end, your brain would have two options. Either go insane or formulate a way to maintain your sanity by FORCING yourself to enjoy it. That's the feeling I get from this album, if I keep banging my head off the brick wall it might crumble, and that to me is the dealbreaker. I'm not enjoying it after 5 or 6 listens so f*** it i'm giving up. The three star review is for it's originality, daringness, scope, and for a clutch of songs/skits/poems which I actually do enjoy listening to.

A synopsis...
1.Go in with an open mind, you're not going to get 4/4 beats/love songs etc.
2.Make up your own mind, don't be bullied by the abundance of over the top fanboys skulking round here.
3.Listen to it in two sittings, it was a double album back in the good ole' days of vinyl.

That's it folks i'd say get it as it's without doubt an interesting listen, just don't be suprised if the bouncer stops you at the door.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Replica but never redundent???
Now like everyone has already said , this album is one of the most controversial and openly discussed sets in the history of recorded music?
Is it blues? is it free jazz? Read more
Published 2 months ago by free jazz space cadet
5.0 out of 5 stars Accessible? peut-être, mais seulement à la première...
Well what can be said about this album that hasn't been said before, well probably this! On first listen the album is totally accessible and makes complete sense, unless you have... Read more
Published 2 months ago by AndySoprano
3.0 out of 5 stars unsafe as milk
i had forgotten how odd this album is.I am willing to give it some credit for trying to break away from convention but all i can say is that zappa must have been very very... Read more
Published 6 months ago by J. B. Sullivan
4.0 out of 5 stars The Heart of the Captain
I haven't played this so many times that I can claim to have had some amazing breakthrough. I like it and might one day love it, hook line and sinker. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Steerpike
1.0 out of 5 stars overrated
simply overrated. i admire the good captain as he was obviously a loony. i like sure nuff n yes i do / electricity and ice cream for crow .. brilliant tracks.. Read more
Published 7 months ago by charliemouse
5.0 out of 5 stars Unsurpassable
This is the greatest record of all time - period
No-one has come close, thats 43 years now, still waiting for a serious challenge..
Published 10 months ago by fibre
5.0 out of 5 stars Native America
It reminds me of a musical version of Champion The Wonderhorse; jack rabbits, tassled-jackets, drinking rye out of shot glasses and desolute desert towns in the world's erstwhile... Read more
Published 10 months ago by D. Smith
2.0 out of 5 stars Still do not get it
Have had this and listened to it for some 20 rear. Some tracks are brilliant ("Moonlight in Vermont" and "Dachau Blues") but I am afraid I still do not get it musically. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Glynmawr
5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest?
Extraordinary music.
I saw a video of Miles Davis at the 1970 Isle of Wight festival the other day and was struck by its similarity with TMR in many ways. Read more
Published 18 months ago by P. S. Bennett
5.0 out of 5 stars Does Humour Belong In Music ?
I first got this album when I was 18 and had already heard its children; early XTC, Pere Ubu, The Pop Group, The Soft Boys and PIL etc. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Modzilla
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'The Scream' and the cover of 'Trout Mask Replica' 0 27 Feb 2011
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