For those with a penchant for chilled out lo-fi scuzzy garage rock, Californian trio Froth should prove right up your 12-lane freeway.
Originally a spoof band created by friends Joo Joo Ashworth (Vocals/Guitar) and Jeff Fribourg, the pair even reaching the point of pressing a blank LP before being forced to perform a last-minute stand-in show together at a festival with assistance from Jeremy Katz (Bass) and Cameron Allen (Drums), leading to the band first rehearsing and creating material together.
5 years later and the core trio of Ashworth, Katz and Allen remain with ‘Duress’, their fourth record overall and second released on Wichita Records. Out on 7th June, be ready for a woozy blend of dissonant guitars, analogue electronica and meagre smothered vocals, the results largely empirical yet sprinkled with hints of flirtation.
Opener and lead single ‘Laurel’ is a contorted ode to lost love, queasy plodding grooves wrapped around white noise guitars, complete with Courteney Garvin produced promo video. Without changing tempo ‘Catalog’ and ‘Dialogue’ prove similarly downplayed, the feedback dominated opening of the former clearing to leave an elegiac dose of shoegaze, both songs boasting somewhat infectious melodies struggling to overcome the chloroform effect. The Sonic Youth inspired ‘A2’ ramps up the guitar-based wall of sound, simultaneously pressing the accelerator whilst ‘Department Head’ feels more like a monochrome droner, dry ice practically coming out of your speakers as the weird electronic coda sounds like a busted old synth enjoying its final moments. Sinister space rocker ‘77’ sounds lifted from a 60s B-movie before things get really strange on the appropriately titled instrumental ‘John Peel Slowly’, eerie half-cut piano reminding me of ‘Zia’ by The Bees.
‘Xvanos’ feels like a song of two halves, sombre vocal making way for propulsive psychedelic intergalactic excess without outstaying its welcome, before closing brace ‘Slow Chamber’ and ‘Syndrome’ comprise a deliciously dreamy denouement.
Words - Mike Price
Froth official
Duress is released June 7th on Wichita Recordings