Given total creative control by producer and friend Frank Zappa, Beefheart and his Magic Band rehearsed the material for this 1969 album for over a year, wedding minimalistic R&B, blues, and garage rock to free jazz and avant-garde experimentalism. Warner Brothers Records.

Alfred Lion considered Andrew Hill his last major discovery and rightly so. Hill's rich, rhythmic piano and utterly unique compositions stand alone. Point Of Departure is Hill's masterpiece with rich three-horn arrangements for Kenny Dorham, Eric Dolphy and Joe Henderson. Richard Davis and Tony Williams complete this high level ensemble.
Three alternate takes have been added to the original LP.

Originally released as an LP by Radish 1967

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer, and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, electronic, orchestral, and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band The Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist.

Uncle Meat is the sixth album by the Mothers of Invention, and seventh overall by Frank Zappa, released as a double album in 1969. Uncle Meat was originally developed as a part of No Commercial Potential, a project which spawned three other albums sharing a conceptual connection: We're Only in It for the Money, Lumpy Gravy and Cruising with Ruben & the Jets.

The album also served as a soundtrack album to the film of the same name, which Zappa eventually finished and released direct-to-video in 1987.

The music is diverse in style, drawing from orchestral, jazz, blues and rock music. The Uncle Meat album was a commercial success upon release, and has been highly acclaimed for its innovative recording and editing techniques, including experiments in manipulation of tape speed and overdubbing, and its diverse sound.

Mothermania (1969), subtitled The Best of the Mothers, is a compilation album by the Mothers of Invention. While the songs were previously released on Freak Out!, Absolutely Free and We're Only in It for the Money, it contains unique mixes or edits made specifically for this compilation.

Angus MacLise was active on New Yorks' underground avant-garde scene in the early '60s, both as a musician and poet. Among his many collaborations was the Theatre of Eternal Music, together with Tony Conrad, La Monte Young, John Cale and Marian Zazeela. In 1965 he became The Velvet Underground's original percussionist, but left before they made any records.
After he left the Velvets, he continued to make improvised music, film music and poetry until his death in Kathmandu, Nepal, 1979.

Pharoah Sanders is an American jazz saxophonist. A member of John Coltrane's groups of the mid-1960s, Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound".

桑·拉，出生名為赫爾曼·普爾·布朗特，依照美國法律登記的名字為Le Sony'r Ra，是一位爵士樂作曲家、樂隊領隊及詩人，是黑人未來派的先驅。此外也會彈奏多種樂器，並提出了所謂的「宇宙理念」。1979年入選阿拉巴馬爵士樂名人堂。 因為他非正統的音樂風格和生活方式，桑·拉此人備受爭議。

...dream collaboration between the King of Ethiopian Sax and the hardest-working band in showbiz, much anticipated by myself and yes, it works.
As the liner notes explain, The Ex's collective mind was blown by the CD of Getatchew Mekuria's records from the early '70s, part of the wonderful Ethiopiques series by the French label Buda Musique. Not surprising really; 'Negus of Ethiopian Sax' (Vol 14) is one of the spookiest, most exotic and out-of-time records I've ever heard. Anyway, the liner notes also explain how the collaboration came about, so I won't here. It's a nice story. The CD booklet is easy on the eye and factoid-crammed, with an interview with Getatchew talking about his life and career, accompanied by lots of cool pictures from his archive, raising the roof with the Municipality Band and the Police Orchestra in Addis Ababa, Gonder, Asmara...
Joining our heroes is Colin Mclean, formerly of the Dog Faced Hermans, on bass and an international horn section of players from Ex-collaborators like the Instant Composer's Pool and Silent Block, I think - Xavier Charles, Brodie West, Joost Buis. Cor Fuhler contributes keyboards on some of the studio tracks. To be honest I think the horn section are the secret ingredient here. The recording is clear and bright, a mix of studio and live takes from this troupe's mini-tour round Europe last year (Which myself, The Doktor & Plaistow Dave travelled to Paris to see).
The Ex's sound has always been about relentless rhythm and building up suspense, with the guitars piling on extra percussion, noise and dynamic to the attack. Here though, they're not the focus but the rhythm section, so the horn section bring together their arrangements of these Ethiopian melodies to allow the lead voice, Getatchew's rich and lyrical playing, to shine.
Instrumentals like the war song 'Che Belew Shellela' gallop along and sounds more celebratory rather than martial. When The Ex slow down, they open up space for some lovely, evocative interplay between Getatchew and the horn section, then the whole band bring in the big band choruses and rock-out climaxes. The closing 'Aha Begena' has a great call-and-response of punk vocals (in Amharic!) and a loopy, catchy horn refrain over a driving beat which'll confuse your body into wanting to shoulder dance, Ethiopian-style, and pogo at the same time. Yah-Ho!
One of my favourite tunes from the original Ethiopiques CD is featured on 'Aynotche Terabu/Shemonmwaneye', with it's monumentally sad, plodding bass melody carrying the waves of chiming guitars, wailing horns and singer G W Sok's plain vocals to levels of incredible power which is as exicting and as the original recording, a beautiful meld of moody post-punk guitar and Ethiopian melancholy. On repeated listens I like it all, there's so much going on but it never turns into a mess, which is another tribute to the talent of all concerned here.
You can tell that everyone is having a great time and love what they're doing, which definitely makes this a collaboration rather than a fusion. About two-thirds through, Getatchew's solo spot 'Tezeta' allows him to step into spotlight and it it's a reminder why The Ex wanted to find the man in the first place and let more people hear his singular voice.

Mastered By – Kobayashi Yoshio
Producer – Shibusa Shirazu
Recorded By, Mixed By – Tanaka Atsushi (Realtime Sound)
Written-By – Fuwa Daisuke

People Clasp Imagination EP by Wood Pushing Melon
木推瓜2020年新单曲《人民抱住想象力》通过BandCamp线上首发！