Band: Frost*

CD Title: “Experiments in Mass Appeal”

Label: InsideOut Music

Release Date: 2008

In 2006 an album was released that took everyone by surprise. The CD was called Milliontown and the band went by the name Frost*. What perhaps was most surprising was that Frost* was the brain-child of one Jem Godfrey famous for writing a string of successful pop songs for artists such as Atomic Kitten. What we didn’t know was that Jem harbored a deep affection for progressive rock music and it showed, with Milliontown landing on many prog lovers top-10 lists for the year. Well after some ups and downs Frost* is back with their second disc entitled Experiments in Mass Appeal. And you could say they’ve picked up right where they left off, although there is an overriding shift in sound and texture.

Frost* still consists of Godfrey (keyboards, vocals), John Mitchell (guitars, vocals), John Jowitt (bass), Andy Edwards (drums) and Declan Burke (guitars). As before these are all proggy compositions from the pen of Jem Godfrey who also arranges and produces the lot. The special edition release of Experiments in Mass Appeal includes a bonus DVD that features the studio logs of the creation of this CD and it’s an amazing thing to watch as it reveals, month by month the creation of some pretty amazing music.

If you are familiar with Frost*s previous disc you’ll be well prepared for the nine-tracks included here (along with one hidden track). We start out with the title track “Experiments in Mass Appeal” [7:58] which begins softly with a plaintive vocal and acoustic guitar intentionally designed to build tension until after about a minute and a half the song bursts into the main section before going on a roller-coaster ride of ballad and then intense rock. It’s that intensity that bowled me over as I listened to this disc. There are plenty of softer quiet moments to each of these compositions but they are greatly contrasted by a high degree of intensity. Many segments of these compositions are so loaded with layers of sounds that they border on a strange kind of harmonic distortion. Of course there are beautiful melodies flying in and out of these pieces, nowhere is that more obvious that on “Saline” [6:09]. Most of the track is simply vocals and toy-styled piano and even for the louder parts we’re hearing only acoustic guitar, until half way through when the song builds and build, but then just as it’s about to explode we go back to solo piano and then vocals. A masterful use of musical expectation and resolution. I have to say that watching the making-of doc Jem makes it clear that he was intentionally using keyboards in a different way and sometimes letting the other instruments carry a musical sound in the song. Each instrument is so processed it’s sometimes hard to hear what is what. But it’s all good. This is most obvious with the introduction in “Dear Dead Days” [6:51] which starts with a buzzing arpeggio which then explodes into a cacophony of symphonic sound that runs at full tilt, only to abruptly stop opening up space for the first set of vocals, soft and plaintive, but only for a while because everything returns to the original grand up-tempo theme and there is seemingly no end to the layers of sound. And here’s the neat thing, in amongst this proggy splendor are loads of melodies to hum. It’s hard to believe, but this is just so masterfully crafted.

Because this album was so dense it took my ears a while to come up to speed, but I have to say that after a dozen spins I’m lovin’ it. Frost* have returned with another masterpiece and I have no hesitation recommending Experiments in Mass Appeal to anyone who’d care to listen.