From show to show, a Frank Zappa performance was never the same.  Each concert was much like a time capsule in the evolution of his music and the players he employed.  This latest archival release, Zappa ’75 Zagreb/Ljubljana, is not only that, but a moment frozen in time on an historical level; from shows recorded in a country that no longer exists.

The context is cool enough to warrant the release: Zappa appearing behind the Iron Curtain in his one and only visit to Yugoslavia.  And the band- a scaled-down incarnation of The Mothers- is salted with some serious beasts; Terry Bozzio on drums is always a selling point.  Chief among the talent, and really the star of the show, is vocalist and tenor sax man Napoleon Murphy Brock, whose moans of anguish on “Managua” open the evening, and whose energy throughout assaults the material with magnetic gusto.

Murphy Brock and his mirror, vocalist and saxophonist Norma Bell, inhabit the best moments of this set; an approximated complete show compiled from two late-November dates.  Not to say Zappa, himself, isn’t right there with them, improvising with streams of inspiration as he always has through some standout versions of “Zoot Allures,” and the exceptional “Chunga’s Revenge” that ends disc one and starts disc two.  And what Zappa performance would be complete without some bawdy storytelling- in this case, “The Illinois Enema Bandit,” translated for full-effect to his foreign audience.  The cumulative track for all that is great about the “Yugoslavian extravaganza” is the beautifully swinging “Black Napkins” on which Murphy Brock, Bell, Bozzio, and Zappa simply mesmerize.

In recent years, the partnership between the Zappa Estate and Universal Music has provided so many multi-disc sets, this humble double is a nice break from the normal abundance of material to sift through and dissect.  Notwithstanding, it’s among the more unique collections; a stellar Zappa show from the mid-1970s with a band and in a country that both would slip into the annals of time.