A friend of mine has seen the DVD, and he was really disappointed. He said it's mostly folks from the Family talking about the old days, mostly about Father Yod himself and very little [if anything] to do with the musical side of things.
And yeah, The Operetta recently released is a great one! They really launch out into the cosmos there at a few points.
The box set is a good purchase but I wouldn't go so far as to say everything in it is great.
Of the Father Yod & the Spirit of 76 albums [predating the Ya Ho Wha 13 albums], the jams reach some great places, but in other places - like with all Ya Ho Wha 13 albums, I guess - Father Yod's crap vocals are just too bad and too high in the mix to tolerate in unsympathetic company. Even listening alone I feel embarassed for him sometimes. Someone should have told the lovable old guy that he might have some good ideas but he can't sing to save himself. There's also a very forgettable album 'All or Nothing At All' which featuress ongs from the folks in the commune who didn't usually get to express themselves musically on the other stuff. What you get here is mainly dull gospel folk that sounds right at home next to Christian stuff of the same ilk.
Of the Ya Ho Wha 13 albums, of course as others have said, Penetration is the classic, but I'm Gonna Take You Home is also pretty good. I found the self-titled one to be very patchy, though. 'To the Principles For the Children' is also kinda patchy, as is 'Savage Sons of Ya Ho Wha', which doesn't feature Yod but is just the band playing their own songs. Has it's moments.
The Fire Water Air stuff is pretty cool. The mixed unreleased materials are mostly Sky Saxon stuff and are fairly patchy.
The Yodship album is pretty crappy if you ask me, and inmstantly forgettable. The Enblish portion of the accompanying notes don't make it too clear who actually performed on this one and it might have just been Sky Saxon & friends, and nothing to do with Father Yod.
Your best bet, like mine was, is perhaps to hold out for a friend to buy the box set, then make copies of the good bits! But if you're a total fan you'd probably want to own the whole thing. A warning though, the booklet that comes with it is mostly in Japanese, so you're unlikely to find out any cool stuff about these folks and their history that you can't find on-line.
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