Jim and Roxie are better known as La Jungle, .
A couple of years ago they teamed up with KermesZ à l'Est to record some tracks.
The result can be found on two mini albums: "Junkz" and "Junkz II".
I hadn't heard of the project but when I saw the artwork of both releases, I just knew I had to give it a listen.
With such artwork, chances would be good that I would like it.
And I did.
It resulted in me buying both 12"s.
Great music, and stunning album artwork by Mathieu Flasse / Warvin
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'Treacherous Cretins' is not just a captivating guitar solo / composition by Frank Zappa, it's also the name of a U.K. Frank Zappa tribute band.
An excellent U.K. Frank Zappa tribute band.
And they will be returning to Zappa Town Bad Dobaran for the Zappanale festival that will kick off next week.
They'll be headlining the festival and their line-up will feature Robert Martin on keyboards, sax, and vocals.
Reason enough for a short chat with Treacherous Cretins' drummer (and nice chap) John Parkinson.
UniMuta: Hi John, Let’s kick off by telling everyone that Snarky Puppy is the best band around at the moment, before we get to the more serious stuff.
Kidding aside, I do think that Snarky Puppy is sensational. We hesitated to attend the Utrecht recording session earlier this year. It just didn’t fit in…
So, Treacherous Cretins will be performing the music of Frank Zappa at Zappanale. As headliner. Saturday evening. I can imagine that you’re looking forward to it.
John Parkinson: The performance by Snarky Puppy and Metropole Orkest was a masterclass in musicianship. It was absolutely fantastic. I think there’s a real kinship between their approach and what Zappa championed: music that’s full of different genres and complex but sounds great! Sitting in the middle of that atmosphere whilst they recorded their session felt like being in the band! I can't wait to see the finished product when it comes out in September. I hate to say it Peter, but you missed a terrific show.
As we gear up for Zappanale, I’m hoping we can carry some of that energy into our own set. Being up there again, playing the music we adore, with Robert on stage beside us, in front of the beloved Zappa community… it’s another dream come true, and yes; we are all really looking forward to it. If the stars align, it's going to be a dynamite show.
UniMuta: You played at Zappanale in 2019. In the meantime, you’ve toured the U.K. twice with Robert Martin as your special guest. (We caught you in London in April 2024 and that was a great show.) How was it to tour with Robert?
John Parkinson: It’s an absolute privilege—sometimes I still have to pinch myself! I first discovered Zappa thanks to my dad, watching Does Humor Belong in Music? on video. That was my gateway into the world of complex arrangements, biting wit, and FZ's fearless originality. And to think that all these years later, I get to perform that music onstage with Robert, someone who lived it—that’s just surreal.
Beyond his legendary status, Robert’s become a friend and mentor to us all. He’s got a treasure trove of stories, and he’s generous enough to share them—whether it’s tales from working with Frank, or gems about Stevie Nicks and Etta James. I actually pieced together a YouTube video recently highlighting some of his incredible career moments from our time chatting in the tour bus on the recent run. Any Zappa fan should give it a watch—these stories need to be shared!
UniMuta: I also found these great clips on YouTube and Bandcamp. Songs that you did with Ray White, Craig ‘Twister’ Steward, Martin Henneck and Robert Martin. How did that come about? And how did you do it, technically speaking?
John Parkinson: It started in the most unexpected way—just sitting at home during Covid, not doing much, trying to keep busy. 2020 was the year Frank would’ve turned 80, so we thought, wouldn’t it be cool to honour him with a virtual show? And from there, the idea bloomed. We decided to turn it into a charity event to raise money for prostate cancer, with people donating whatever they felt they could.
We wanted to make it special, so we reached out to some of the Zappa alumni and other great musicians we've met along the way — and to our surprise, they all said yes. It was a labour of love from start to finish. Sam would create a skeleton track and send it out to each musician. Everyone recorded their parts at home, sent the audio back to Sam for mixing, and filmed themselves performing. Those videos came to me, and I edited everything together. It took hours! But we had nothing much else to do. No rehearsing; no shows. We were mixing and editing right up to the day of the virtual show. The video is on our YouTube channel:
I’m so glad we did it. Not only did we get to know Robert better—something that eventually led to touring with him—but we also kept spirits up, stayed musically active, and got to celebrate the music we love with people around the world during such a difficult time; and raise a few quid for charity.
UniMuta: Beautiful. Thank you.
With Ray White being present at the festival, might there be a chance that he will do a song with you?
John Parkinson: Well nothing is planned, but the magic of Zappanale is such that you never know what might happen! We recorded with Ray for the Zappa 80th virtual show... so who knows!
UniMuta: Thank you for taking your time to answer these questions, John.
Have a safe trip and see you soon.
Treacherous Cretins, featuring Robert Martin, will be performing on the Zappanale main stage on Saturday, 19/07, at 21h00.
The Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp is another band that I discovered through Zappanale.
Next to their albums, the band also releases 7" singles from time to time.
One of these, the 2022 'Shut Out / Noe', presented two tracks from the sessions that led to "We're OK".
Limited edition of 500 copies.
https://www.redwig.org/shop/orchestre-tout-puissant-marcel-duchamp-shut-out-noe-7/
The Yuval Ron Trio is taking the final slot at the Zappanale Festival.
They'll perform Sunday evening, around 20h30.
Time for a Short Chat with Yval Ron.
UniMuta: Hi Yuval,
It has been a while since we’ve been in touch. Must have been pre-covid. I did see that you did gigs in Germany, The Netherlands, The U.K. and even Israel the last couple of years.
And it looks like you’ve got a tour scheduled for 2025/2026.
So, how are you? What have you been up to, lately?
If I’m not mistaken, you were scheduled to perform at last year’s edition of the Zappanale festival. What happened?
YR: That's right, during Covid there wasn't much going on except "Live Against The Virus", a live streaming show we did, the online edition of Fusion festival and some small features here and there. However, ever since then, we've been touring extensively in Europe and played some incredible venues, including our own Prog Nights series which got some serious audience love, especially in Berlin. We even got to play in the Faroe Islands a few months ago. Unfortunately our Israel show was cancelled because of the war.
Indeed, we were supposed to play Zappanale last year. Honestly I'm not sure what happened, but from my understanding some weeks before the show the Bad Doberan municipality decided that it was scheduled for too late as there's some kind of noise curfew there, so the festival team had to postpone our show to this year. Oh well, at least this time Zappanale isn't happening in parallel to Night Of The Prog so there might be some more audience coming to Bad Doberan.
YR: Thank you! I very much agree that it's not easy to perform, haha. If we don't play it live for even a couple of weeks I always have to warm up the engines and practice my own parts to find and "reload" whatever small bits I forgot.
With me on stage will perform my regular trio of astronauts: Commander Victor Nissim on bass and Mission Specialist Yatziv Caspi on drums.
UniMuta: You will be playing the closing concert at Zappanale. Usually, this is sort of an after-party concert at a smaller stage. This year it will be at the main stage. That can only add to the joy.
Will you be performing music from “Somewhere In This Universe, Somebody Hits A Drum”? Or will it be newer material?
Are there plans for a new album?
YR: Yes, most of the stuff will be from "Somewhere In This Universe, Somebody Hits a Drum" plus a couple of newly arranged tunes from previous albums, as I felt that I want to give our audiences the opportunity to experience the complete album live before moving on. Our 2025 shows will pretty much be the last ones where we play it in its entirety. There are new tunes I'm working on and the plan is to record them into a new album in 2026 and play them live then.
UniMuta: Something to look forward to ! Thank you, Yuval.
The Yuval Ron Trio will be performing at the Zappanale main stage on 20h30 on Sunday.
A not-to-be-missed concert in my book !
