From the outset, Melbourne band Glasfrosch have been travelling down their own unique path, completely and utterly oblivious to commercial concerns. Their music is niche, to say the very least – they’re unlikely to get much radio play, they’re not rock stars, and they simply don’t care.
Glasfrosch’s debut album was wildly left of centre, and the 2013 follow up Aubades even more so. Nocturnes is actually the second part of a two album suite that began with Aubades, and it’s truly a mind-bending experience.
There are no real words to describe the musical journey this album takes you on. Likewise, conventional genre tags do nothing to give the uninitiated an idea of where Glasfrosch dwell. In a roundabout way, they make pop music, although it’s almost indistinguishable as such. That’s because they infuse it with elements of jazz, rock, avant garde, ambient and world music, as well as just about everything else their wild and fertile imaginations can come up with. Presiding over proceedings is the strange but sensuous croon of frontman Justin Ashworth. Well, in between the lengthy, emotional and sometimes downright bizarre instrumental passages anyway.
Nocturnes is an album that must be experienced to be believed. Legally download it or buy a copy direct from the band and prepare to have your mind opened as wide as it can possibly go.
BY ROD WHITFIELD
