“Einzelkind strengthens Jerome Froese as being the king of Heavy Rock Electronica”
1 Glasmenagerie 5:13
2 Sprachlabor 5:55
(EP-CD/DDL 11:08) (V.F.)
(E-Rock, Guitartronica)
Here's a new project from Jerome Froese. Like his father with the CupDisc, MoonLoop is a series of mini CD's, I will say singles here because the length is just too short to be called an EP, of which each issue is on a specific subject and each subject will be accompanied by 2 titles of indefinite length. The first subject chosen seems to be the childhood of an only child, EINZELKIND, with a photo of Jerome alone in front of a TV in Japan. It was during the first tour of Tangerine Dream in the land of the rising sun in 1983. And most of the sounds come from old video games and video consoles which would have (speculations here) furnished the solitary childhood of young Jerome Froese.
Childhood or not, nostalgic or not, Jerome's music is always as heavy and roaring. Glasmenagerie, for Ménagerie de Verre, is a powerful whirlwind battered by percussions. Over the years, Jerome's style of composition leads him to the insertion of beautiful melodious visions into his titles of lead. And those of Glasmenagerie float on heavy pulsations and breaths of metals finely jerky. The structure is heavy and powerful and filled with a tasty musicality which stores its harmonic threads through the jerky riffs of his Guitartronica. It's very good! In addition, there is this strange scent of candy-pop music that circulates there, adding a fascinating touch of innocence to a title for child-eater. If it is, Sprachlabor is even heavier with an intro and its long rosary eroded by powerful reverberations which break in a curt, powerful and jerky rhythm. A nice surreal melody sits there, like a child-robot separating the slightly acerbic man from childhood forgotten in a corner of the living room.
It took me a while, but I ended up becoming a fan of Jerome Froese. There is an incredible talent behind this young man to whom I have often, and perhaps unjustly, blamed for the fall of Tangerine Dream. It was not until much later that I realized that without his son, Papa Froese would have had a lot shorter breath. But whatever, EINZELKIND is a great single which follows this tangent of hard rhythms and harmonies of silk primed in the shade of TD's classics in Dream Mixes and continued on Neptunes and which consolidates Jerome Froese as being the king (pioneer?) of Hard Rock Electronica.
Sylvain Lupari (March 23rd, 2012) ***½**
Available at Jerome Froese Bandcamp
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