DiscReet Records
Encyclopedia
DiscReet Records was a company founded by Frank Zappa
and his then business partner/manager Herb Cohen
. It was created in 1973 when their previous companies Bizarre Records
and Straight Records
were discontinued. The name of the label was a pun derived from "disc" and the discrete
(also known as "Compatible Discrete 4", "CD-4" or "Quadradisc") method of encoding quadraphonic sound into phonograph records. DiscReet was distributed by the Warner Bros. Records
family of labels, which also included Reprise Records
.
DiscReet issued many albums by Frank Zappa
and The Mothers of Invention
between 1973 and 1979. Another notable act on the label was Ted Nugent
and The Amboy Dukes
, who recorded their final two albums for DiscReet. Soon after this Ted Nugent began his solo career.
Zappa's original intention was to release all albums on the label in conventional 2-channel stereo
and 4-channel quadraphonic sound simultaneously. DiscReet issued two albums specially remixed for quadraphonic during 1973. These were Over-Nite Sensation
by Frank Zappa and the Mothers
and Apostrophe (')
credited to Frank Zappa
. But the quadraphonic policy had to be dropped after just two releases. Also advertised were quadraphonic versions of two other Zappa titles. These were the double live album from 1974, Roxy & Elsewhere
, and the 1975 (mostly) studio album One Size Fits All
. The four-channel master tapes for these albums probably still exist somewhere in the Zappa archives but the quadraphonic versions have never been released.
Herb Cohen also brought to the label recordings by other artists such as Tim Buckley
. In 1976 the Zappa/Cohen business partnership turned sour and ended in litigation. At the same time Zappa also had disagreements with DiscReet's distributor Warner Bros. Records. DiscReet was shut down in 1979 following the decision by Warner Bros. to release three albums for which Zappa claimed Warner did not have proper authorization, Studio Tan
, Sleep Dirt
, and Orchestral Favorites
. The three disputed titles had no songwriting or production credits and used artwork by Gary Panter
, which was not approved by Zappa.
Zappa later created Zappa Records
in 1979 and Barking Pumpkin Records
in 1981. These companies had no involvement with Cohen and are completely separate business entities from DiscReet.
In 1988 and 1989 DiscReet recordings by Tim Buckley
and Ted Nugent
and The Amboy Dukes
were briefly re-issued on CD and cassette by the Enigma Retro
label. Zappa's recordings for DiscReet were re-issued by Reprise Records in the late 1970s and deleted in 1982. Since the late 1980s Zappa's DiscReet catalog has been available on CD from Rykodisc
.
Frank Zappa
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, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
and his then business partner/manager Herb Cohen
Herb Cohen
Herbert "Herb" Cohen was an American personal manager, record company executive, and music publisher, best known as the manager of Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, and many other Los Angeles-based musicians in the 1960s and 1970s.-Life and career:Cohen was born in New York...
. It was created in 1973 when their previous companies Bizarre Records
Bizarre Records
Bizarre Records was a record label formed for artists discovered by rock musician Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen.Bizarre was originally formed as a production company...
and Straight Records
Straight Records
Straight Records was a record label formed in 1969 to distribute productions and discoveries of Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen. Straight was formed at the same time as a companion label, Bizarre Records. Straight and Bizarre were manufactured and distributed in the U.S. by...
were discontinued. The name of the label was a pun derived from "disc" and the discrete
Discrete signal
A discrete signal or discrete-time signal is a time series consisting of a sequence of qualities...
(also known as "Compatible Discrete 4", "CD-4" or "Quadradisc") method of encoding quadraphonic sound into phonograph records. DiscReet was distributed by the Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
family of labels, which also included Reprise Records
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
.
DiscReet issued many albums by Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
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, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
and The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention were an American band active from 1964 to 1969, and again from 1970 to 1975.They mainly performed works by, and were the original recording group of, US composer and guitarist Frank Zappa , although other members have had the occasional writing credit...
between 1973 and 1979. Another notable act on the label was Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent
Theodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent is an American guitarist, musician, singer, author, reserve police officer, and activist. From Detroit, Michigan, he originally gained fame as the lead guitarist of The Amboy Dukes, before embarking on a lengthy solo career...
and The Amboy Dukes
The Amboy Dukes
The Amboy Dukes were an American rock music band of the late 1960s and early 1970s from Detroit, Michigan, best remembered for their hit single "Journey to the Center of the Mind", and for launching the career of Ted Nugent...
, who recorded their final two albums for DiscReet. Soon after this Ted Nugent began his solo career.
Zappa's original intention was to release all albums on the label in conventional 2-channel stereo
STEREO
STEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth...
and 4-channel quadraphonic sound simultaneously. DiscReet issued two albums specially remixed for quadraphonic during 1973. These were Over-Nite Sensation
Over-Nite Sensation
Over-Nite Sensation is an album by Frank Zappa & The Mothers, released in 1973 . It was recorded in March – June 1973 at these studios: Bolic Sound in Inglewood, Whitney, in Glendale, and Paramount in Los Angeles...
by Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Frank Zappa
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, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
and Apostrophe (')
Apostrophe (')
Apostrophe is an album by Frank Zappa, his eighteenth, released on March 22, 1974 in both stereo and quadraphonic formats. An edited version of its lead-off track, "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow", was Zappa's first chart single, reaching position 86. Apostrophe remains Zappa's biggest commercial...
credited to Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
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, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
. But the quadraphonic policy had to be dropped after just two releases. Also advertised were quadraphonic versions of two other Zappa titles. These were the double live album from 1974, Roxy & Elsewhere
Roxy & Elsewhere
Roxy & Elsewhere is a live album by Frank Zappa & The Mothers which was released in 1974. Most of the songs were recorded at The Roxy Theatre in Hollywood, California on December 8, 9 and 10, 1973...
, and the 1975 (mostly) studio album One Size Fits All
One Size Fits All
One Size Fits All is a 1975 rock album by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. It is the last Zappa album to be released with the subheading of "Mothers of Invention". A special four-channel Quadraphonic version of the album was prepared and advertised, but not released...
. The four-channel master tapes for these albums probably still exist somewhere in the Zappa archives but the quadraphonic versions have never been released.
Herb Cohen also brought to the label recordings by other artists such as Tim Buckley
Tim Buckley
Timothy Charles Buckley III was an American vocalist, and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound...
. In 1976 the Zappa/Cohen business partnership turned sour and ended in litigation. At the same time Zappa also had disagreements with DiscReet's distributor Warner Bros. Records. DiscReet was shut down in 1979 following the decision by Warner Bros. to release three albums for which Zappa claimed Warner did not have proper authorization, Studio Tan
Studio Tan
Studio Tan is an album by Frank Zappa, first released in September, 1978 on his own DiscReet Records label. It reached #147 on the Billboard 200 albums chart...
, Sleep Dirt
Sleep Dirt
Sleep Dirt is an album by Frank Zappa released in January, 1979 on his own DiscReet Records label. It reached 175 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart...
, and Orchestral Favorites
Orchestral Favorites
Orchestral Favorites is an album by Frank Zappa first released in May, 1979 on his own DiscReet Records label. The album is instrumental and features music performed by the 37-piece Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra...
. The three disputed titles had no songwriting or production credits and used artwork by Gary Panter
Gary Panter
Gary Panter is an illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post-underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of Arcade: The Comics Revue and the initiation of RAW, one of the second generation in American underground comix...
, which was not approved by Zappa.
Zappa later created Zappa Records
Zappa Records
Zappa Records was a short-lived record label founded by Frank Zappa in 1979 after he severed his ties with Warner Bros. Records which distributed his Bizarre Records, Straight Records and DiscReet Records. It was distributed by Mercury Records. Three albums were released on the Zappa label, Sheik...
in 1979 and Barking Pumpkin Records
Barking Pumpkin Records
Barking Pumpkin Records was a record label created by Frank Zappa in 1981. The label was initially distributed by CBS Records from 1981–1984 and Capitol Records from 1984 - 1993. Records sold outside of the US and Canada were distributed by the Music for Nations label. In 1993, after Zappa's death,...
in 1981. These companies had no involvement with Cohen and are completely separate business entities from DiscReet.
In 1988 and 1989 DiscReet recordings by Tim Buckley
Tim Buckley
Timothy Charles Buckley III was an American vocalist, and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound...
and Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent
Theodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent is an American guitarist, musician, singer, author, reserve police officer, and activist. From Detroit, Michigan, he originally gained fame as the lead guitarist of The Amboy Dukes, before embarking on a lengthy solo career...
and The Amboy Dukes
The Amboy Dukes
The Amboy Dukes were an American rock music band of the late 1960s and early 1970s from Detroit, Michigan, best remembered for their hit single "Journey to the Center of the Mind", and for launching the career of Ted Nugent...
were briefly re-issued on CD and cassette by the Enigma Retro
Enigma Records
Enigma Records was a popular rock and alternative American record label in the 1980s. It was initially a division of Greenworld Distribution, an independent music importer/distributor, which it split-off from in 1985 to become its own company...
label. Zappa's recordings for DiscReet were re-issued by Reprise Records in the late 1970s and deleted in 1982. Since the late 1980s Zappa's DiscReet catalog has been available on CD from Rykodisc
Rykodisc
Rykodisc Records is an American record label. It is owned by Warner Music Group, operates as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and is distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance.-Company history:...
.
List of DiscReet Records artists
- Christopher Bond
- Tim BuckleyTim BuckleyTimothy Charles Buckley III was an American vocalist, and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound...
- Denis Bryant (aka Bryant Sterling)
- Kathy Dalton
- Growl
- KeithKeith (singer)Keith is an American vocalist. He legally changed his name to Bazza Keefer in 1988, in memory of his mother.-Early days:...
- Ted NugentTed NugentTheodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent is an American guitarist, musician, singer, author, reserve police officer, and activist. From Detroit, Michigan, he originally gained fame as the lead guitarist of The Amboy Dukes, before embarking on a lengthy solo career...
and The Amboy DukesThe Amboy DukesThe Amboy Dukes were an American rock music band of the late 1960s and early 1970s from Detroit, Michigan, best remembered for their hit single "Journey to the Center of the Mind", and for launching the career of Ted Nugent... - Brenda Patterson
- Whiz Kids
- Frank ZappaFrank ZappaFrank 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, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
and The Mothers of InventionThe Mothers of InventionThe Mothers of Invention were an American band active from 1964 to 1969, and again from 1970 to 1975.They mainly performed works by, and were the original recording group of, US composer and guitarist Frank Zappa , although other members have had the occasional writing credit...