FROM THE POND

The impact of collision against a big froggie can throw you off this real world ... ?

FROGGIE BEAVER were a very obscure, short-lived rock outfit formed in Omaha, Nebraska around 1970. They released one and only album "From The Pond" on their own in 1973 - which might be much influenced by late 60s psychedelic rock and early 70s progressive rock like Procol Harum, Pink Floyd, or Moody Blues - and disappeared soon after that. The line-up creditted the album were John TROIA (voices), Ed STASZKO (keyboards), Rick BROWN (drums, percussion), and John FISCHER (guitars, bass). "From The Pond" could see the light as a reissued CD (with 5 bonus tracks - two 45 and three unreleased studio ones) via an independent label Gear Fab Records in 1999.

Certainly we could not have found such an impressing band FROGGIE BEAVER if Gear Fab Records reissued "From The Pond" as a CD medium. Although they have never been known at all except a fact they had only a self-released album, we easily can capture their serious music attitude and terrific technique, quality of their album. Catch the grand psychedelic wave via "Road To Tomorrow Pt. 1", impressive with the quiet acoustic guitar solo and the solid keyboard backing, and by the following track "Lovely Lady", a bit poppy but speedy and fully technical one, we can be trampled over like a pebble under a lady's heel. Ed's keyboard play is as aggressive and graceful as Rick of Symphonic Yes I always feel, and at the same time how powerful John's voices are ... contrary to this, in "Come To Believe" John can flexibly change his vocal style into something like a mysteriously tragic singer, in a persistent sticky slow-tempo ballad. "Away From Home", the masterpiece in this album, is completely a tranquil, easygoing, and simultaneously 'real' Space Rock just like Echoes by Pink Floyd ... dreamy, heavy, and drastically dramatic air flow cannot let us regret at all. As honestly I say, this is one of my favourite progressive rock songs. The next one "Just For You" can be thought as a simple Acid Folk, but in my humble opinion they should be fully-blown progressive outfit around early 1970s. So, let me say it's too sad for us to leave FROGGIE BEAVER alone, how do you think?

Gratitude for Froggie, such a wonderful (and remarkably unknown) creation.

It's easy to forget that although the greatest examples of progressive rock were taking place in Europe in the early 70s, that even as early as 1970 this style of music was catching on in the least expected places. One of the cities you would never expect is in the heartland city of Omaha, Nebraska where this prog band FROGGIE BEAVER hopped FROM THE POND in 1971 and onto its one and only album that appeared two years later. This band consisted of John Troia (vocals), Ed Staszko (keyboards), John Fischer (guitar) and Rick Brown (drums), all of whom were smitten with the dreamy pop atmospheric stylistic approach of The Moody Blues along with a few Keith Emerson keyboard antics and spaced out acoustic guitar strumming sessions in the vein of Pink Floyd.

This all but forgotten band that only had a brief moment out of its amphibious hideaway has only been resurrected by its inclusion in a Record Collector Dreams book by Austrian author and collector Hans Pokora. Having emerged from the extreme outback in terms of the prog rock world, it's no wonder that FROGGIE BEAVER took on a more commercial approach that crafted top 40 radio friendly tunes with some FROGGIE proggy extras. The band was somewhat of a local sensation as these guys played at clubs and malls and by 1973 had amassed enough original material to record an album but due to indifference in the local music scene the band members had to save up enough cash in order to record and release their dream works independently and so FROM THE POND was released on the FROGGIE BEAVER label.

For hardcore prog lovers this will not get the juices flowing as this is a slow trodding dreamy pop album fortified with loads of atmospheric keyboards with a touch of ELP styled keyboard outbursts from time to time. Guitars are mostly set to acoustic or clean all set to catchy pop melodic constructs that capture a somewhat detached modus operendi save the opening track (not including the intro) "Lovely Lady" which sounds somewhat like a proto-Styx type of album without the vocal prowess of Dennis DeYoung but although vocalist John Troia may not have had such an operatic range, his style of singing perfectly suits this early form of dream pop. Even though most tracks are fairly straight-on acoustic rock ballads with fairly lukewarm references to anything remotely prog, there are occasions where the compositions are allowed to hop into a more dynamic developments.

Generally speaking the strongest tracks are in the forefront and FROM THE POND slowly descends into more tranquilized space rock with each subsequent track losing a little luster until the FROGGIE BEAVER returns FROM THE POND it emerged never to be heard from again. This is certainly an interesting album and not a bad listen in the least but i hardly thing FROGGIE BEAVER will ever be considered anything other than a notable relic from a place in the world not even remotely associated with prog rock in the early 70s. This is a very crossover album with the line more on the pop side of the equation much like bands the AOR / prog bands like Ambrosia to come. The album has seen reissues with five extra dream pop rock tracks so if you really love this and can't get enough there's still more to be had! Some of the bonus tracks are better than the actual album as they rock! Personally i think this sounds a bit like 10CC at its poppies moments only the hooks aren't quite as catchy or well developed.