Utility Muffin Research Kitchen

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From 1979 onwards , the composer and rock musician Frank Zappa ran his own high-quality recording studio in Los Angeles under the name Utility Muffin Research Kitchen (UMRK), in German roughly “Mehr Zweckbrötchen-Forschungsküche” . The studio included a mobile sound studio called UMRK Mobile for recording on tours. The name UMRK also appeared briefly as a catalog number for three albums that were released from Zappa's musical legacy.

history

By the late 1970s, rents in the professional studios that Zappa had always used until then had reached horrific heights of up to $ 30,000 a week. Despite the high rents, the studios were often fully booked months in advance. "Actually, I had to buy all of this because I had to save money," said Zappa in an interview with Steve Rosen. Zappa decided to have his own recording studio built next to his home in Los Angeles.

The building was two and a half stories high and had a footprint of 20 by 10 meters. In addition to three separate echo chambers of different sizes, the large recording room (“The Yard”) and the control room, it also had separate recording booths for drums, percussion and vocals. There were rooms for the high-quality technical equipment of the studio, for mixing , mastering and premastering as well as a break room completed the structural equipment of the studio. Another building erected on the Zappa property was the warehouse for tape and video recordings called “The Vault” (German: “the crypt ”).

The technical equipment of the studio met the highest requirements. Initially equipped with devices using analog technology, the studio was adapted to the digital recording technology emerging at the time in the early 1980s . The studio initially included a portable 24-track recording unit with analog technology. From the spring of 1981 the mobile recording studio called UMRK Mobile was ready for use. Zappa had acquired the Beach Boys' eight-meter-long recording car and had it converted for his needs, which was also upgraded with the latest digital technology in 1983. Zappa was considered to be one of the few record artists of his time who were able to have their own, completely digital system even on tour. Until his death, he endeavored to keep the equipment of the UMRK up to date.

Zappa almost exclusively produced his own works in his studio. There were only a few productions for other artists, for example for Missing Persons . The group of his former drummer Terry Bozzio was the first "foreign" to produce in the UMRK. Irish folk group The Chieftains recorded five tracks on their Grammy-winning album The Celtic Harp at UMRK , including tracks "The Green Fields of America" ​​and - with the participation of Tom Jones - "Tennessee Waltz" and "Tennessee Mazurka". The album Havin 'A Bad Day , the record debut of the then 16-year-old Zappa son Dweezil , was also recorded in the UMRK . In later years he produced his own albums as well as albums of the group "Z", which he founded with his younger brother Ahmet .

The Zappa Family Trust had the studio, in which the last major changes were made in 1990, significantly rebuilt in 2002 and brought the equipment up to date. This update included the ability to record in 5.1 multi-channel audio format . Shortly before the new label Vaulternative Records was founded, three albums from Frank Zappa's musical legacy were released, which were provided with UMRK catalog numbers in the United States: Civilization Phaze III (UMRK 01), Frank Zappa Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa (UMRK 02) and Everything Is Healing Nicely (UMRK 03).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steve Rosen: Pappa Zappa . Fachblatt Musikmagazin, June 1982, ISSN  0930-0171 . Link (as of April 2007)
  2. ↑ a b c Barry Miles : Zappa . German edition. Rogner & Bernhard at two thousand and one. 2005. ISBN 3-8077-1010-8 .
  3. ↑ Studio and warehouse ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of April 2007) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / mixonline.com
  4. ↑ UMRK-Mobile ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of April 2007) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / mixonline.com
  5. ↑ Missing Persons ( Memento of the original dated May 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of April 2007) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / cglass.vinu.edu
  6. ↑ The Chieftains ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of April 2007) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / thechieftains.com
  7. ↑ Havin 'A Bad Day (as of April 2007)
  8. ↑ Dweezil Zappa discography (as of April 2007)
  9. ↑ Group "Z" (as of April 2007)
  10. ↑ Studio update ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of April 2007) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / mixonline.com
  11. ↑ Frank Zappa album versions (as of April 2007)

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