by François Couture

Sleep Dirt was never conceived as a stand-alone album. Five of its seven tracks were suppose to appear on the ill-fated 1976 box set Läther; three had been recorded for Zoot Allures but were shelved after Zappa decided to trim it down from a double to a single LP; finally, three had been written as part of the abandoned musical Hunchentoot. Zappa pieced the album together from these various discarded parts. "The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution" (one of the leftovers from Zoot Allures) is now considered to be one of his finest instrumental rock pieces. Upon its original release, this LP was Zappa's first 100 percent instrumental record. On the CD reissue, the three Hunchentoot songs, "Flambay," "Spider of Destiny," and "Time Is Money," were given their vocal parts back (performed by Thana Harris). As infuriating as this was for purists, these latter versions are undeniably closer to what the composer had in mind. The same does not apply to Chad Wackerman's new drum tracks for "Regyptian Strut," recorded in the midst of the infamous tamperings of such classic LPs as We're Only in It for the Money and Cruising With Ruben & the Jets. A strange mixture of the gloomy atmosphere of Zoot Allures and more theatrical (even cabaret-like in the case of "Flambay") writing, Sleep Dirt is somewhat sweet and sour. There are strong guitar solos, but the whole thing lacks panache (and the cover artwork is truly awful). This item remains more for the completist than the newcomer.