EXPERIMENTS IN MASS APPEAL

If you were to ask me if I'd be interested in buying a cd by someone who wrote for and produced Atomic Kitten I'd probably laugh at the ridiculous suggestion. However Jem Godfrey, the keyboard playing mastermind behind Frost* is that person and here is their second album, Experiments In Mass Appeal in my collection. Now I couldn't name you a single Atomic Kitten song but the tracks that make up this album are very good indeed.

All credit can't go to Godfrey though. He did his homework well and recruited the excellent John Mitchell (Arena, Kino, It Bites) for guitar duties. Also on board are IQ men John Jowitt on bass and Andy Edwards on drums and finally Declan Burke on vocals/acoustic guitar making a line up of some pedigree.

Progressive rock it certainly is though don't be expecting anything 70's sounding here. Frost* have their feet firmly in the current decade producing an extremely modern sounding prog album with strong emphasis on melody, no doubt down to Godfrey's pop involvements. Much as I love a good 70's keyboard sound full of hammonds, mellotrons, moogs etc there's none of that here. Godfrey sticks with synths, the nearest he gets to retro being electric piano. It works pretty well though he does swamp the mix a bit at times. All the other players put in a strong performance and Burke is a decent singer too.

The material is strong throughout with the highlight being Dear Dead Days and Falling Down which segue into each other mid album. As well as very strong melodies there's some fine instrumental work going on including excellent solos from Godfrey and Mitchell.

Overall it's quite a bombastic affair but there's room for subtleties and quieter moments like the ballad Saline which makes a pleasant diversion from heavier tracks. The final track Wonderland gives the impression of being an almost 16 minute epic. Disappointingly as good as it is it's cut short after just under 6 minutes. After half a minute of silence the track fades back in, or in reality an unnamed different track which is a quieter and more sparsely arranged piece than the powerful Wonderland.

So if you have you your feet stuck in the 70's then Frost* will not be the band for you. On the other hand if you fancy a bit of modern neo prog then this band are well worth checking out.