LAID TO REST

This album has shot up my personal chart for 2012 and will most likely end up in the top three. Ok, how to describe Frequency Drift. Melodic drawn out songs in the vein of Gazpacho but with a haunting female vocalist, a world music flair and a lot of violin.

I love a good hook, and a lot of times a good hook will push me to buy an album. That was the case with Frequency Drift, I was listening to the album on Spotify and 'Parted' hooked me. Once the song became ingrained in my head, I had to have the album. One sales meeting give away of an iTunes gift card and I had three new albums to listen to on the flight home. Laid to Rest was the best of the three (don't get me wrong, the other two were great as well).

I'm not going to do a song by song break down here, instead, I'll focus on the overall feel. As I mentioned earlier, Frequency Drift uses a longer, more drawn out song format similar to Gazpacho and Hogarth era Marillion. They differentiate themselves from their peers by the addition of Antje Auer on vocals providing them with a distinctively haunting female lead. I love her voice, though at times her phrasing needs a little work. In fairness that could be as much from singing in English instead of her native German. There are sections, especially in 'Parted' that are a little awkward. The good news is that this is the exception rather than the norm.

The second thing that makes these guys special is the instrumentation, the harp and violin are featured prominently throughout giving it an exotic feel. The violin of Frank Schmitz is exemplified by the Arabic accents throughout 'Dead' and again in the blistering solo in the latter half of 'Parted' . . . and how often do you get to hear harp these days. Adding to the exotic feel, Nerissa Schwarz adds another dimension to tracks such as 'Parted', 'Wish' and 'Copper'.

The third great thing about this album is the Middle Eastern feel throughout. I personally love the Arabic chords and tones scattered throughout the album. I think every song has some element of Arabic music ingrained in it. It's not used to excess, rather just the right amount and just the right times.

I started this out with the intent of giving the album four stars, but I've convinced myself that it deserves a full five stars. If you like the exotic aspects that I mentioned above don't miss this release.