Ok yep, a frog concept album from Israeli sound artists and electronic duo Grundik Igor Kasyansky and Slava Smelovsky. In fact frogs are mentioned in pretty much every song title, such as a frog gets over his fear of water and the old frogs dream. But why frogs? "Only frogs know," says the cd tray, and that is the only explanation we receive. Interestingly their apparent humorous obsession is not necessarily represented by their sounds. Rather Frogs is an incredibly evocative, somewhat moving foray into electro acoustic work, melding field recordings (of frogs and other things) with electronics, and vocals. Predominantly ambient drone based work, the vocals come courtesy of Jerusalem singer Victoria Hanna who provides sweeping cries, chanting moans, strange gibberish and vocal improvisations, interspersed with field recordings of crickets, water, birds and of course frogs. It truly is an amazing listen, with the duo creating an otherworldly sound, that can be favorably linked to the earlier work of The Animal Collective or the Throbbing Gristle's more ambient soundscapy work. I's that compelling, well crafted and dynamic. These guys are clearly masters of the assemblage and Frogs is an incredible example of avant electronica, dreamy drone and psycho folk all coming together as one big happy amphibious family.

Bob Baker Fish

Тэги записи: kunstkamera: reviews and interviews