Frank Zappa - Road Tapes Venue # 2 (2013)

The party stirred by the presence of Ponty, Ian Underwood, and Humphries as sole drummer (pre-Napoleon) is sufficiently different even from the Roxy ensemble to make this a singularly valuable excavation. More importantly, bottom line, B) the music played is phenomenal! Consistently exciting, insanely tight, insanely good. And soundwise, plenty of breathing room between the players. Expecting worse from the warnings I'd read, I think the mix is amazing for 2- & 4-track recordings. I can pick out each player at any given time, none too loud or faint and therefore you can really hear them playing off one another.

I know this gets said a lot about various releases, but I'm saying it ~ one of the finest Zappa releases ever. I think I've got a new favorite time machine destination if I could catch any live Zappa moment. These guys 'n gal are beyond compare.