DiscReet Records

DiscReet Records

DiscReet Records was an organization started by Frank Zappa together with his then business partner/manager Herb Cohen. It was developed in 1973 while their earlier companies Bizarre Records and Straight Records were ended. The name of the label was a pun taken from "disc" along with the discrete (also called as "Compatible Discrete 4", "CD-4" and also "Quadradisc") way of encoding quadraphonic sound into phonograph records. DiscReet was dispersed by the Warner Bros. Records family of labels, which additionally integrated Reprise Records.

DiscReet distributed quite a few albums by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention between 1973 and 1979. DiscReet distributed also for  Christopher Bond, TimBuckley, Denis Bryant (aka Bryant Sterling), KathyDalton, Growl, Keith, Ted Nugent and The Amboy Dukes, Brenda Patterson and  Whiz Kids.

Zappa's original motive was to release all albums on the label in traditional 2-channel stereo and 4-channel quadraphonic sound all together. DiscReet issued two albums specially remixed for quadraphonic throughout 1973. These were Over-Nite Sensation by Frank Zappa and the Mothers and Apostrophe (') credited to Frank Zappa. But the quadraphonic policy needed to be dropped after just two releases. Also promoted were quadraphonic variations of two other Zappa titles. These were the double live album from 1974, Roxy & Elsewhere, and the 1975 (generally) studio album One Size Fits All. The four-channel master tapes for these albums possibly even now can be found someplace in the Zappa archives but the quadraphonic variants have never been introduced.

In 1976 the Zappa/Cohen business partnership turned bad and led to litigation. Simultaneously Zappa also had tantrums with DiscReet's distributor Warner Bros. Records. DiscReet was close down in 1979 following the decision by Warner Bros. to produce three albums for which Zappa stated Warner did not have appropriate authorization, Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, and Orchestral Favorites. The three disputed titles had no songwriting or production credits and applied visuals by Gary Panter, which was unwarranted by Zappa.

Zappa later generated Zappa Records in 1979 and Barking Pumpkin Records in 1981. These companies had no involvement with Cohen and are totally standalone business entities from DiscReet.

In 1988 and 1989 DiscReet recordings by Tim Buckley and Ted Nugent and The Amboy Dukes were quickly 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 collection has been offered on CD from Rykodisc.