“Jerome goes a step forward by offering a hard-hitting album which allies ambience rhythms and harmonies on explosive tracks”
1 A Mellow Morning 6:09
2 Mrs. Misty Kiss 6:35
3 Airborne 7:10
4 Cartoony Universe 6:57
5 Inside the Secret 7:33
6 Paris in Peril 8:47
7 Im Museum Fuer Mechanik 7:14
8 Through Love and Deed 6:02
9 Playing for Penalties 5:22
10 Under the Black Flag 6:43
11 Can You See the Sunset from the Southside? 4:30
(CD/DDL 73:03) (V.F.)
(Rock'n'Teutronica)
After 2 years of waiting, here is the second opus of Jerome Froese. As much to say it from the start, JF is no Edgar, nor Tangerine Dream, but indeed a solid musician and studio man of astonishing maturity. JF has gone a step further by offering a percussive electronic album which combines ambiences, rhythms and harmonies on explosive titles with biting evolutions. The young Froese has a mastery of studios and equipment that is out of the ordinary, because each composition offers astonishing arrangements in addition to offering unexpected turns, in a concern for harmonious ethics. Clear sign of an ever-increasing ease and maturity.
Each track is well organized and has spellbinding intros. Like this Christmas mood on A Mellow Morning, which plunges into the unstable variations of a strobe structure, and the nebulous Airborne, which struggles to find its rhythmic drive in a tornado of sequences muffled in heavy ochred mists. We have honeyed intros that stick to hyper-fast, syncopated, and punchy sequences. I'm thinking of Cartoony Universe, Paris in Peril and Under The Black Flag which are explosive titles with stunning progressive structures. Jerome Froese uses a very neurotic psychedelic synth-music style with heavy guitar riffs and flabbergasting percussions. Of course, there are nebulous atmospheres everywhere on the album, mainly on introductions. The others are pretexts for these bridges of transition which redirect the music towards explosive phases full of frenzied sequences. Explosive moments that borders on the impertinence of Trance GOA on movements with controlled harmonies! Apart from the hard and heavy rhythms, SHIVER ME TIMBERS offers good electronic ballads like Mrs. Misty Kiss, Through Love and Deed and Can you See the Sunset from The Southside? bring an exquisite depth to this album which swarms with contagious rhythms and catchy melodies. I had a crush for A Mellow Morning and Mrs. Misty Kiss.
SHIVER ME TIMBERS is a pleasant discovery. Those who think Jerome Froese is cold and placid by nature should reconsider their positions, because the album is anything but icy! There are superb ballad-like titles which explode on nervous rhythms and Froese's son demonstrates an incredible knowledge of production, because everything flows with a strange metallic harmony. To hear and listen at high level. Simply superb.
Sylvain Lupari (November 13th, 2009) *****
Available at Jerome Froese Bandcamp
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