You didn’t think I could write a title like that, eh? Well actually I didn’t. It’s a term taken from Michel Delville & Andrew Norris, both living in Brussels, who have written a book on Zappa, Cpt. Beefheart and Californian freakdom entitled “Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and the Secret History of Maximalism”. Keep your dictionaries at the ready as I present you with a quote:
The vortex of Zappa’s maximalism is a toilet, and here we see him seizing on a creative détournement of the human body: the penis becomes a heart, a conflation of two organs of love — the literal and the symbolic are fused together in an anthropomorphic leap of imagination curiously prophetic of Van Vliet’s later pictorial style with its Wellsian miscegenations.
I love the smell of Watsonian prose in the morning!
January 29th, 2006 at 10:39 am »
Art wank, the curse of the “adventurous music” (ahem) fan…
January 29th, 2006 at 12:16 pm »
For anyone interested (not many here I guess) you can find a pdf of their initial exploration of the subject at…
http://www.cipa.ulg.ac.be/pdf/delvillenorris.pdf
January 29th, 2006 at 1:26 pm »
Duh? …But is it a Monster?
January 29th, 2006 at 6:59 pm »
Don’t forget: Michel Delville is the man behind the FZ cover band The Wrong Object.
http://www.wrongobject.be.tf
January 29th, 2006 at 7:09 pm »
Url has been replaced by :[LINK]
He’s not a Belgian ” just an intellectual / egghead”. Good & inventive / active band leader and guitar player as well.
In october last year they playes with - amongst others- Elton Dean ( ex Soft Machine, dada in music in the 60-70 ies, remember their gigs with Jimi Hendrix). Gigs on october 2005:
Monday October 10: Jazzpower, Eindhoven, 20h30
**Tuesday October 11: L’An Vert, Liège, 20h précises
**Wednesday October 12: PP Café, Brussels, 21h
*Tuesday October 18: Glaz’Art, Paris, 20h30
**Friday October 27: L’Aquilone, Liège (Bd Saucy, 25), feat. Harry Beckett, 20h30
**Friday October 28: The Wrong Object feat. Harry Beckett, Jazzzolder, Mechelen, 21h
E mail Michel Delville [mailto:wrongobject@hotmail.com]
January 29th, 2006 at 10:18 pm »
There’s no doubting Mr Delville’s credentials as a Zappaphile - but any old fool with a thesaurus can write this twaddle. The clever part is persuading someone to publish it and pay you for it!
January 30th, 2006 at 7:59 pm »
Varèse. Facing dead my guess is that FZ wanted to pay a tribute to his mastermind, cal it his mentor.
Ever listened to Varèse’s Ionisations? Just do it. Far ahead of its time. Nobody - OK just one wierdo living 236 kilometers from your home- would be ready to call that music.
My guess is that FZ ( on the condition that he & his family were really financially safe ) would have continued composing, further building on Varèse. Qiute a lot of organisations / associations ( not the least in Europe, especially Germany) would indeed have been ready to foresee the necessary financial means.
January 31st, 2006 at 4:35 am »
I bought Zubin Mehta conducting Varèse with the LA Phil on vinyl a while ago. I listened to Ionisation first–I call it music. I listened to it as unbiased as possible, and loved it. Intégrales? Amazing! Arcana? Stunning! It’s a shame he only kept less than 20 of his compositions.