Frank Zappa Cheaper Than Cheep 180g 3LP

Analog Planet Rated 10/10 Music, 9/10 Sound!

In 1974, Frank Zappa recorded a TV concert movie in his private rehearsal hall, but there were tech issues that caused the video to be shelved in the 'Vault' for 50 years. Now, with advanced post-production, Zappa Records present Cheaper Than Cheep, revealing the newly restored original vault audio masters.

This stand-alone soundtrack configuration comes as a 3-LP set on 180-gram black vinyl accompanied by an extensive booklet with rare, unseen images and liner notes from Ruth Underwood and Joe Travers.

As a lifelong Zappa fan, I'm personally thrilled with Cheaper Than Cheep, as it is a truly wonderful, metamorphosis-in-real-time aural document, with parts of the iconic Roxy band reconfigured into an even tighter, smaller, ever-more-mobile unit. The group at this moment in time was far from rusty, yet we get to hear them getting realigned into a fine-tuned, badder-still super-powered music machine, performing Zappa's compositions at a remarkably ultra-steady pace, more akin to actual studio recordings than a staged concert...Cheaper Than Cheep also contains a wealth of original Zappa compositions that were not officially released until years later. Some of these compositions were no doubt bootlegged by eager fans over the years for unauthorized releases, but we didn't really ever get to hear high-quality studio and live versions like those we're getting here.