39. Frost* – Milliontown
What a Little Moonlight Melody Can Do
From the beginnings of “progressive” rock with Rubber Soul/Revolver at #40, Frost* is the mark that we’ve officially reached the other pole of the spectrum.
What started as an in-his-spare-time synth experiment of pop music producer Jem Godfrey’s, Milliontown was never intended as a proper album. It was more of a pet project, an after-work “labor of love” that sort of took on a life of its own and gave birth to what is now Frost*, one of the latest and most uncompromising prog-rock outfits with a flair for layering, excess and the wonders of post-production.
Think of it this way: If Rubber Soul/Revolver was the start of a kind of musical awakening, Milliontown is what happens 5 cups of coffee afterward. In my review for Liquid Tension Experiment I (my #47 pick), I refer to the album as an exercise in “showy virtuoso freakout,” and in a sense, you could file Milliontown into the same log. Where this album is a little different, though, is in its sense of self-awareness. Is it self-indulgent? Definitely. Pretentious? There will always be people who call prog pretentious. But because of Godfrey’s background in pop, it’s a bit more grounded, also—emotionally. It chooses its melodies carefully, digging deeply into each as if it were trying to find out exactly what could lie at their ultimate ends. This core keeps the piece from ever devolving into that masturbatory “so what” kind of prog, where the guitarist and keyboardist take turns showing off just how fast and technically they can solo. It proves that this frenetic, long-song model still can work, that the word “progressive”* in 2010 doesn’t have to mean “clinical.”
*I think it’s important to acknowledge that the word “progressive” is probably one of the most loosely defined terms in music. Like all labels, it really means nothing: ambition, experimentation, non-traditionalism. But bits of these qualities are/should be incorporated into all forms. And so “Prog” was born, a category for the hard-to-categorize that over time became known for, among other things, its complex compositions and electronic elements. So (sigh…) for my purposes, let’s call “Prog” anything that ignores traditional song structure and, in borrowing from other styles, endeavors to create something that might surprise people. It’s a stupid setup: Neutral Milk Hotel is “progressive,” but good luck getting anyone in the community to call it “Prog.”
There is definitely a part of Milliontown that understands that clichés are clichés for a reason and that there’s value in tradition. But then there’s another, more enthusiastic part that gets off on breaking the rules. And, really, it’s that latter quality which makes this, Frost*’s debut record, special.
In Case of Emergency, Prog
Maybe one of the coolest things about Frost* has little to nothing to do with listening to its albums. It’s “The Frost Report,” a video blog* chronicling almost every part of the band’s life cycle: Jem in his home studio, Jem trying out new keyboard accessories, Jem showing you how to use ProTools, Jem and the band on tour, recording, rehearsing, acting stupid and always, every second, swept up in the awe and energy of taking their hands and creating something with them that wasn’t there before.
*Does anybody really say “vlog”?
Funny, informative and often ridiculously random, “Reports” are a window into Frost*’s creative process and, to me, kind of define this Internet-powered modern age of music we’re in, where album teasers are the norm and artists are releasing EPs on iTunes the second after they finish mixing them. With “The Frost Report,” we’re literally welcomed inside Jem Godfrey’s home, where we watch as he builds, passage by passage, the music we’ll soon be keeping in our CD racks and iPods and cars. And almost more interestingly, we’re invited into the personality of that music, the band’s group dynamic and inside jokes—we even get to see the pride and excitement in them when they put together something nobody was expecting.
You couldn’t say this about a band 20 or 30 years ago. Back then, music was something else entirely, something that just… was. It wasn’t pieced together by real people like you and me; it was a kind of magic, mysterious and spinning. (Check out an article by Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson for a deeper discussion of this subject)
What I write about Milliontown today is completely different than what I would’ve written if I had no access to the faces behind the noise. Or, who knows, maybe I wouldn’t have written about it at all.*
*The Internet has made our relationship with music interactive. In as much as “The Frost* Reports” have enriched my experience with the band, you have to wonder if this kind of overexposure is always a good thing. For an album like Milliontown and a band like Frost*, I would say yes, absolutely—because part of the point of this band is to relish the prog “formula” and celebrate its spirit. But for other bands, genres, this might be a different story.
In one edition of the “Report,” Jem discusses his love of pop music and compares the genre to a family sedan. It’s safe, he says, rides smoothly, is accessible. But every now and then, he pauses, you just crave a sports car, something dangerous to climb inside and tear through the streets in to remind yourself that you’re alive. Prog is that sports car. And Milliontown is the kind of album that’s best appreciated under that pretense.
Without even trying, it’s one of the most insightful metaphors about the genre that you could make. I’m all for smooth acoustic plucking and lazy piano lines, but whether it’s the beautiful “Hyperventilate” opener, the intense“Black Light Machine” or the 26+min title track, listening to Milliontown and albums like it remind me why I love and how I fell in love with this medium. It’s the enthusiasm and curiosity of boundaries that gets me, qualities in music that should never, ever be considered “progressive.”
Listen/Watch:
“Frost Report,” Feb. ‘08, Writing Album 2, Experiments in Mass Appeal
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