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Despite the rampant cynicism currently surrounding Record Store Day and label offerings, tomorrow's Record Store Day releases include some really desirable title.

UMe sent me a few including the first vinyl release of Frank Zappa's "Feeding the Monkies At Ma Maison", which was a CD-only release in 2011. Frank produced this material on a Synclavier DMS and recorded it to tape. As the liner notes state "Here we have longer versions of these pieces as Frank put them on tape one day in 1986".

However, the liner notes written by the late Gale Zappa claim that Zappa originally intended this as a vinyl release. There are only three tracks here, and two, "Buffalo Voice" and "Secular Humanism" were on Civilization Phase III from 1994 but in edited form.

The master of these performances only exists (in useable form at least) as a Sony 1630 digital master, which is probably as high as was the Synclavier's resolution at the time (I'm just surmising that). What I like about this RSD release is that Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering cut it from the master and it is so stated on the jacket. I also like that the orange vinyl is extremely well pressed and that there is a wonderful glossy color heavy stock insert with a close up photo of Frank on one side and a candid shot on the other where there are excellent notes and an anecdote from the artist who painted the cover art, from which the title was taken.

In other words, this isn't a shoddy piece of RSD "product" and for Zappa fans, especially those who collect him on vinyl, this is a great piece—assuming you appreciate this type of free-form synth-jazz (which I do!).

Speaking of Frank, there's also a 10" Sinatra Swing Easy! reissue of an original 1954 mono Frank album arranged by Nelson Riddle. It's also well-pressed and sounds very good, whatever the source. I was also sent a copy of John Cougar Mellencamp's excellent Scarecrow album with the "Cougar" mildly crossed out for this 30th anniversary edition. It says "re-mastered from the original tapes" and it sounds as if that's what Ron McMaster used, and not a digital file sourced from the tape. At least that's what the comparison to Bob Ludwig's original Masterdisk master had me thinking. The reissue is well done in every way.

For more on UMe's extensive RSD offerings click here