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avestin ![]() Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Honorary Collaborator Joined: September 18 2005 Status: Offline Points: 12620 |
![]() Posted: September 15 2010 at 19:06 |
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So far, this is my favourite release this year (I've heard only about 200 releases from this year, and there are some other great releases but this one is above all others so far)
You can stream the entire album here ![]() Bateless Edge Frogg Café Here are the PA reviews for this album: ![]() Following this is an instrumental Move Over I'm Driving, which after the intense first track calms things down a little. There appear to be no added musicians on this track, but the group themselves give another fine show of ensemble playing. Some nice time signature shifts and arpeggio violin work flows smoothly into subtle jazz guitar noodling and trumpet blowin'and is a fine piece of work. There sure are some highly competent musos in this band.... Next up is Pasta Fazeuhl. Fans will know that a lot of the band's more improvised work ends up being named after types of pasta, and this one invents a new Teutonic strain. Get your local Italian restaurant to patent it lads! This one apparently started life way back in 2003 after seeing Magma play live and is described as "not in the style of Magma....(but) in the spirit (of).." The band stamp their own jazz-classical style on this "tribute", if that's the right word. Less angular than Magma, who I have always struggled with to be honest, this excursion into weirdness has a touch of Sun Ra in there somewhere too, which is no bad thing. Around 5 minutes in the cacophony halts abruptly, and a cyclical bass riff is slowly built on by violin, guitar, drums and gradually builds into a very strange sometimes almost Crimsoid section, in who knows what time signature! Weird but good. On first hearing I found this one hard work, but repeated listens have made me appreciate just what great players FC are. Now we have the centre piece of the album - Under Wuhu Sun - a 20 minute epic split into 3 parts. Another highly personal lyric from Andrew Sussman based on "Wuhu Diary: On Taking My Daughter Back To Her Home Town In China" by Emily Prager, and on his own family's experiences in their trials and tribulations adopting their daughter from China. Starting with a slow theme, the sad emotive song of the first part is followed by a nice guitar break that lifts the mood while still remaining introspective. The instrumental second part opens with a chugging riff, followed by a slower quieter but still intricate piece of ensemble playing and forms a bridge to the concluding third part. The opening of the final section is the most Zappaesque instrumentally, but still retains the by now recognisable Frogg Cafe style. A nice clarinet followed by trombone (I think) solo comes in at around the 3 minute mark leading to a nice bubblingly fluid guitar noodle - mmmmm, nice! I've only had the opportunity to listen to this track a few times but it's already in danger of becoming my favourite piece by the band. Following this is From The Fence, the only track with lyrics not by Andrew Sussman. This time writing duties are taken by Nick Leito, and they are more ambiguous than his band mate's. The song could be interpreted in a number of ways, suffice to say the protagonist seems to be unable to make up his mind which way to turn. Whether personally, politically, emotionally I can't say, I'll leave that up to you. This is also the straightest "song" on the album, not that it suffers in any way for it. Quite uplifting, it must be in a major key (don't hold me to that)! The final track Belgian Boogie Board was originally written for 2 clarinets and 2 electric basses and has now had all manner of extraneous instrumentation added and fair belts along with joyous mischief for its 10 minutes. All in all this is a highly ambitious work and is deserving of far more attention than it will
inevitably receive. How on earth the band find time to write the songs and complex
orchestral arrangements, and oversee the recording in tandem with their day jobs and the
usual stuff of daily life, families etc, is beyond me. If their was any justice they should be
able to at least make a living from this astounding music. ![]() ![]() The album has, for me, four highlights of admirable height, however: The opening song, "Terra Sancta," with its highly engaging electric guitar riff and powerfully chaotic and frenetic electric guitar solo (8/10); "Move Over I'm Driving" which recreates the JEAN-LUC PONTY-FREDDIE HUBBARD-WEATHER REPORT-MOTHERS OF INVENTION album that never occurred (7/10); "Pasta Fazeuhl" which fuses so many unusual musical styles into one song that it defies categorization (fusion-fusion?!) (7/10), and; "From the Fence" a more traditional song of almost ballad feel, beautiful lyrics and singing, interlaced with some awesome hooks from violin, CHICAGO-like brass section, trombone and trumpet soli. Actually, all in all this song has a very CHICAGO-ECHOLYN hybrid feel/sound to it (8/10). The rest of the album (one 10 ½ minute song and a 24-minute, three-song suite representative of the process of adopting a Chinese child) fail to engage and/or entice me. Overall an album of very interesting music and songwriting from very talented and adventurous musicians. I will continue to listen and look for FROGG CAFÈ music because it makes me pay attention and smile. 4 stars. Try it! You'll (probably) like (some of) it! ![]() The horn playing on this album is very virtuostic - especially the very Zappaesque runs of notes and the strange time signatures of certain parts. There aren't any shredding guitar solos, but the guitar is very well handled for what it is, and stand-out instrumental moments include the upright bass part on "In the Bright Light", the guitar solo of "Terra Sancta" and the marimba/xylophone playing across the album. Most of the melodies are extremely beautiful - "Terra Sancta" and "In the Bright Light" are just downright catchy whereas "Pasta Fazeuhl" and "Belgian Boogy Board" are beautiful soundscapes. None of the songs are bad. There's no filler on this album. Just great music. In conclusion, this is an album which uniquely blends jazz horns and mallet percussion with avant themes and disharmony with beautiful melodies and skillfull instrument playing into a hodge-podge masterpiece. ***** songs; "Terra Sancta", "Under Wuhu Son: In the Bright Light", "Under Wuhu Son: Left for Dead", "Belgian Boogie Board" **** songs; "Move Over, I'm Driving", "Under Wuhu Son: Brace Against the Fall", "From the Fence", "Pasta Fazeuhl" Final rating, 4.4/5 ![]() Edited by avestin - September 15 2010 at 19:07 |
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The Truth ![]() Collaborator ![]() ![]() Post/Math Rock Team Joined: April 19 2009 Location: Kansas Status: Offline Points: 21795 |
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Amazing album, review upcoming.
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SaltyJon ![]() Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 08 2008 Location: Location Status: Offline Points: 28772 |
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Ooh, I'll have to check this one out, thanks for the heads up!
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TheGazzardian ![]() Prog Reviewer ![]() ![]() Joined: August 11 2009 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 8222 |
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I heard Frogg Cafe for the first time earlier this year when I got their Creatures album. I am definitely going to be picking this one up in the very near future, perhaps with my next CD purchase if I am lucky. Unfortunately, I don't go through music quite as fast as you Avestin (
![]() I actually think I've given this spiel in about five different cases in the past little while, so I imagine as soon as my current backlog is cleared, another will emerge...
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Man With Hat ![]() Collaborator ![]() ![]() Jazz-Rock/Fusion/Canterbury Team Joined: March 12 2005 Location: Neurotica Status: Offline Points: 161694 |
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Yes!
An excellent disc. Insane that you can here this album completely for free. Completely worth it.
I'll be the first one to say I was underwhelmed with their last studio album, and even that live album is pretty sweet, its nothing as good as BE. A step up in everyway from any of their previous efforts. Nice and complex, avanty and jazzy...honestly I can't think of a way to improve the album at this point.
Unfortunately for BE, it was released in 2010 where there are many more good albums than 09. Honestly for me, its #2 so far at this point, with Nels Cline's Initiate topping it. And this next quartet by AltRock certainly contains alot of heavy hitters.
But that takes nothing away from the awesomeness of BE. It will certainly be in my top 5 this year and I'm stoked for where they will go next. Definitely a 5 star album. Hopefully one day I'll be able to review it.
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Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
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TheGazzardian ![]() Prog Reviewer ![]() ![]() Joined: August 11 2009 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 8222 |
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You must be listening to better albums than me.
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Man With Hat ![]() Collaborator ![]() ![]() Jazz-Rock/Fusion/Canterbury Team Joined: March 12 2005 Location: Neurotica Status: Offline Points: 161694 |
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Maybe you listened to better albums from 09 than me.
![]() And admittedly, this was a bit of a prediction. I mentioned the AltRock quartet, which honestly could all be top five material if done right. Ulver is also suppose to release a new this year. I've heard some great things about the new Spock's Beard. Comus are supposed to have a new one out. Jean Louis as well. And there are a couple more leftovers that were "suppose" to be out in 09 that I've still heard nothing about for coming out in '10, so wishful thinking perhaps on my part. There are also a couple of strong contenders out there (like the aforementioned Intiate) and Jaga Jazzist's latest. Korai Orom also put one out this year which I need to track down. Univers Zero album is also top notch.
What I should have said, is that there are alot more bullets for BE to dodge than anything from last year (which I'm not saying was bad...just for me BE beats every album I've heard from 09). Mostly in context of the number one album spot. I'm 90% confident that BE will make top five, just where is alot more uncertain.
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Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
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The Doctor ![]() Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Honorary Collaborator Joined: June 23 2005 Location: The Tardis Status: Offline Points: 8543 |
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Have to say I love this album. I only have one other one from them, Fortunate Observer of Time and that one blew me away. Bateless Edge is even better. Definitely a great starting point for the unitiated and for the unitiatied, you don't know what you're missing. These guys rock (in an odd time signature, jazzy and counterpointy sort of way).
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I can understand your anger at me, but what did the horse I rode in on ever do to you?
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TheGazzardian ![]() Prog Reviewer ![]() ![]() Joined: August 11 2009 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 8222 |
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I'm excited for that one too. (Insert my previous spiel about backlogs here...I should just put it in my signature, would save me much exposition) |
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Man With Hat ![]() Collaborator ![]() ![]() Jazz-Rock/Fusion/Canterbury Team Joined: March 12 2005 Location: Neurotica Status: Offline Points: 161694 |
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Haha. Yeah. I hear you there. I have a sizeable pile of stuff I haven't listened too. I make some slight progress but then...new orders are placed.
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Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
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