This is Zappa's masterpiece of electronic music, conceived, composed and performed on his Synclavier, a computer system for music composition and recording. Civilization Phaze III is an astounding work, taking Zappa nearly ten years to finish. Released posthumously, this 2 CD set is a testimony to Zappa the composer, containing the pure fruits of his imagination and the hard work he continued until his death in 1993. Continuing the story of the piano people from Lumpy Gravy (and utilizing much of the same tape source material for it's interludes) the album fulfills on the promise of his Grammy-winning Jazz From Hell, the first album released of his Synclavier music. Rather than sounding artificial, the sampled instruments sound other-worldly, as if Zappa's latest band had traveled from a dimension where our own laws of space and time didn't apply. Strings morph into winds in the middle of a phrase, and different instruments trade alternating notes in the most complicated and fast of passages. Anyone interested in new experimental and electronic music will also want to check out Civilization Phaze III, the genre's best-kept secret. --Andrew Boscardin