One-time only vinyl pressing in a hand-stamped edition of 333 copies in handmade sleeves. First time on vinyl.

Previously only issued on CD in 1994, the album is often described as the jazz equivalent to Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music". To say ZTFS was "a departure" for Metheny is like saying "Jaco Pastorius liked cognac."

Loud, dissonant layers of electric guitars and overdriven amplifiers were in stark contrast to the smooth melodic guitar jazz Metheny had built his fanbase and legend upon. At the time, some theorized that this was Metheny's "fuck you" to his label Geffen and perhaps a way of purposely ending his contract on a sour note.

Others close to Metheny disputed those claims and instead describe the album as a pure expression of sounds Metheny had dreamt of making for some time.

Metheny himself in 2008 said of the album, "That record speaks for itself in its own musical terms. To me, it is a 2-D view of a world in which I am usually functioning in a more 3-D way. It is entirely flat music, and that was exactly what it was intended to be."

While generally panned by critics at the time as "unlistenable", once the album made its way to the ears of listeners less ::ahem:: discernible than the typical Downbeat subscriber, it was widely hailed as a masterpiece of free improvisation.

If there is any doubt as to the albums greatness: It was described as "rubbish" by notorious Frank Zappa apologist Ben Watson in his 1994 The Wire review.