New York's Frogg Café has made its second release Creatures, which is quite an interesting album. There are lots of different influences in their music... The most evident being Zappa, Yes, Gentle Giant, Ian Anderson, Genesis, Ravel, Coltrane, Ives and Copland, to name a few. Their style is a blend of jazz, fusion, progressive rock and modern chamber music. They have performed with major progressive rock bands such as The Flower Kings and The Magic Elf. As all of the band members are university trained in music, there's no doubt about their proficiency in music. However, also they have flaws.

The music is good and diverse, but there were occasionally some unmusical parts. These unmusical parts were sometimes quite annoying and they ruined the mood I was in. Without these parts, this album would have been great. Frogg Café is very creative band with their own distinct sound.

Production on this album is quite good... There's not much to complain, except for the distortion that occurred seldom. For example, guitar solo on 'All This Time' had some distortion (in the bad way, so the tone wasn't so pleasant to listen to)... Otherwise, the production is good in every way.

If you're a friend of art rock, and aren't put off by albums that need more than one listen, check out Frogg Café. Especially if you're in need of diverse and imaginative music, you should check them out. There are samples at ProgRock Records' website for you to listen.

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- MAGE (01.08.2004)

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LINE-UP:
Lieto, Nick: Lead And Background Vocals, Keyboards, Mellotron, Hammond Organ, Grand Piano, Trumpet, Percussion, Hot Water Camiola, Frank: Electric Guitar, 6 And 12 String Acoustic Guitars, Classical Guitar, Tenor Banjo, String Bass, Additional Keyboards, Percussion Ayasse, Bill: Electric Violin, Acoustic Violin and Viola, Mandolin, Octave Mandolin, Background Vocals, Percussion Sussman, Andrew: Electric Bass Guarnieri, James: Drums, Percussion Additional Musicians: Ayasse, Sharon: Flute (Tracks 3, 4, 5) Campanella, Steve: Marimba (Tracks 2, 4, 5) Tunney, Christopher: Clarinet (Tracks 3, 4) Harris, Dee: Sarod (Track 3) Roache, Tim: Toro Electric Weedwacker Flogged Upon a Celestial Metal Can, Various Blocks of Wood, Voices (Track 3) Ayasse, Marjorie: Background Vocals (Track 2), Voices (Tracks 1, 3) Dr. Mac And Brother Bam: Voices (Tracks 1, 3)
Producer:	Ayasse, Bill & Camiola, Frank
Mixing by:	Ayasse, Bill & Camiola, Frank
Mastering by:	Meyer, Andreas

	TRACKLIST:
	01. All This Time 02. Creatures 03. The Celestial Metal Can (in Memory of Charles Ives) 04. Gagutz 05. Waterfall Carnival