Frogg Cafe "Creatures"

Gara-gara postingan Canterbury Scene, pikiran saya melanglang buana kemana-mana mengingat band yang beraliran CS ini dan akhirnya saya beberapa kali nyetel album terakhir band prog Amerika bernama FROGG CAFE. Asik banget album terakhir ini.  Sayang saya belum sempat menulis review nya. Untuk perkenalan dengan band ini, saya tampilkan review saya terhadap album mereka yang lampau : Creatures. Musik jiyan tob tenaaaan! Kalau suka Canterbury pasti suka band ini pol!

 

Studio Album, released in 2003

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. All This Time (6:26) 
2. Creatures (7:40) 
3. The Celestial Metal Can (In memory Of Charles Ives) (8:18) 
4. Gagutz (7:56) 
5. Waterfall Carnival (21:13) 

Total Time: 51:33

Lyrics

Search FROGG CAFE Creatures lyrics

Music tabs (tablatures)

Search FROGG CAFE Creatures tabs

Line-up / Musicians

- Nick Lieto / lead & back vocals, keyboards, Mellotron, Hammond organ, Grand piano, trumpet, percussion, Hot Water 
- Frank Camiola / electric guitar, 12 string acoustic guitar, classical guitar, tenor banjo, string bass, additional keyboards, percussion 
- Bill Ayasse / electric violin, acoustic violin, viola, mandolin, Octave mandolin, backing vocals, percussion 
- Andrew Sussman / electric bass 
- James Guarnieri / drums, percussion 

Guests: 
- Sharon Ayasse / flute (3-5) 
- Steve Campanella / marimba (2,4-5) 
- Christopher Tunney / clarinet (3-4) 
- Dee Harris / sarod (3) 
- Time Roache / Toro electric weedwacker flogged upon a celestial metal can, various blocks of wood, voices (3) 
- Marjorie Ayasse / backing vocals (2), voices (1,3) 
- Dr. Mac and Brother Bam / voices (1,3)

Releases information

CD Self production No Cat. no. (2003 USA)

Review by Gatot
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator

 WOW! What a great offering from the second album from New York based prog rock band Frogg Café! Honestly, at first listen of the CD I was so confused about the music of the band. But, when I gave it a try at second spin onwards, I was amazed with the craftsmanship of the musicians involved in this album. Awesome. The band started their career with a band name Lumpy Gravy in 1998 performed Frank Zappa repertoires. Well, that’s typical early careers of prog band – play cover for well known artists. What good about it, in 2000 they changed the name to Frogg Café and stopped playing covers as the started making music and performing a music of their own. Great.In this album you will find a combination of jazz, improvisation, and symphonic prog music plus a wide variety of influences from other great bands like Yes, Gentle Giant, Genesis, King Crimson, Phish and some adventurous exploration into an avant-garde music. The opening track “All This Time” is a true mind catcher as it combines the natural sounds of mellotron that bring you to the seventies and stunning guitar solo in jazzy style. Yes, this is a perfect blend between jazz and symphonic prog rock. The vocal is clear, transparent and powerful! You should not miss this one man! The next track “Creatures” has an ambient nuance with a floating music followed with jazzy keyboard work. You will also find the choirs that remind you to singer / guitarist in jazz music: George Benson. But the music is different. “The Celestial Metal” is the band’s experimentation with avant-garde music that might not favor most of us, I think.”Gagutz” starts with an exploration of woodwind instruments in solo, followed with a full-blown music in jazz / fusion style augmented with Crimsonisque guitar work and dynamic drum work.

“Water of Carnival” is the band’s epic as it consumes twenty one plus minutes of music. It starts mellow with acoustic guitar, vocal and flute brings the music in a floating style. As the chords build up, the mellotron enters the music accentuated with acoustic guitar breaks. I really enjoy the acoustic guitar parts that remind me to Steve Howe, especially on passages where mellotron sounds serve the background music. The music turns to complex arrangements in the middle of the track with great violin solo. The other unique point of this track is the combination of heavy symphonic music with jazz / improvisation ones.

Overall, the music of Frogg Café was composed brilliantly and delivered flawlessly with a wide variety of influences. But there is no issue of ripp-off at all with this composition. An excellent addition to any prog music collection.

Progressively yours,

GW

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Posted Saturday, July 16, 2005

 

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