The German progressive rock outfit Frequency Drift visited our country for the first time to do a concert at venue De Pul in Uden. I had wished they would play before a larger audience to welcome them, but only about forty people had showed up when they started their ninety-minute set. However, I had already taken into account that only few people would visit this concert since both the Dutch support act Unkh and Frequency Drift are rather unknown bands in the Dutch prog rock scene. Moreover, more prog concerts were held on the same day at other venues. Anyway, the fact that few people showed up didn't prevent these bands from giving a good performance just to show what they're capable of.
 

Unkh

Two months ago I saw Unkh for the first time live on stage. At the time this band, with a rather strange name, supported the Cuban prog rock band Anima Mundi at De Cacaofabriek in Helmond. The four musicians succeeded in entertaining me throughout their short set (see review). They performed some excellent prog rock pieces all taken from their debut album Traveller

Jeroen Habraken

(2014, see review). However, some visitors didn't consider the final song Barfly's Last Cigarette to be a prog composition, so they had mixed feelings about the performance. I'm not sure whether this was the reason why this time this song was omitted from the play list. This meant that time was available during their 45-minute set to play a new piece of music with the working title Dreamcatcher since it's still under construction. It was performed after the strong instrumental opener Theme of the Mighty Mushroom. Some people would call it an epic because it lasted more than twenty minutes and it included many solos played by singer and keyboardist Jeroen Habraken and guitarist Frits Appel. I certainly enjoyed it as much as I liked the final song Borderlines.Fr (see video). which certainly belongs to the best prog rock songs of the band's repertoire. Especially the final part is outstanding featuring an amazing climax. If they continue writing this kind of compositions, I'm sure they will gain more fans than they already have now. I think many people who initially came to see Frequency Drift enjoyed this performance as well. It was a great live show from one of the upcoming Dutch progressive rock bands!
 

Frequency Drift

The music of Frequency Drift isn't easy to describe since they blend all sorts of musical styles: from folk to rock, from prog rock to classical music and from metal to Celtic folk music. Thanks to the many instruments they play, among which some 'strange' instruments like the cello and the harp, their songs sound rather diverse. In order to perform this music live on stage seven musicians are involved. This means that it was rather crowded on stage and since all musicians drew the attention you sometimes didn't know where to look. I think it

Isa Fallenbacher

was a difficult job for the sound engineer behind the mixing desk to get everything under control. This could be noticed at the beginning of the gig; both the band and the sound engineer had to find the right balance between all instruments.

However, when the show continued the sound improved for the people in the audience. Throughout the concert they could enjoy the fabulous vocal performances of the eighteen year old (!) lead singer Isa Fallenbacher. So far she recorded only one album with the band being Over (2014, see review). She still has to learn how to introduce the songs that were mainly taken from the band's last three studio albums. From time to time she looked a bit shy but at the moment she had to sing her vocal lines she sounded confident and with a clear and pure voice. The way she performed Dead (see video) was pretty amazing! But Isa Fallenbacher wasn't the only musician on stage showing to be outstanding. What about Sibylle Friz on the cello and the recorder? Her cello parts

Sibylle Friz

brought a lot of drama into the music of the band. Sometimes it reminded me of the Electric Light Orchestra, a band that also incorporated this instrument. Every now and then Friz played together with Nerissa Schwarz, the third female musician in the band. She brilliantly played the electric harp and she sometimes assisted the keyboard department by playing the Mellotron. From time to time she led the harp sound like an electric guitar; she led me to prog heaven especially when she played the harp gently and delicately.

The musician who drew the most attention was undoubtedly guitarist Christian Hack. He not only proved to be an excellent guitarist but he could also manage well with the flutes and the wavedrum. The latter was a kind of electronic device on which he could reproduce the sound of a conga and other percussion instruments, but it

Christian Hack

sometimes caused technical problems and then he didn't get any sound at all. His brother Andreas Hack,  who played the keyboards as well as the electric guitar, can be regarded to be the mastermind and the brainchild of the band, because he wrote most of the band's compositions. However, on stage he doesn't want to be in the spotlights; he seems to prefer a modest place at the back of the stage. Unfortunately the keyboards weren't mixed to the foreground and so many of his fine keyboard parts could hardly be heard. His synthesizer solo during Memory was completely ignored by the sound engineer, while this section belongs to the highlights of this excellent composition.

The rhythm section consisting of bassist Wolfgang Riess and drummer Thomas Amon did a great job. Many times they made it possible that the other musicians could excel on their instruments by supporting them with a fine rhythm or a strong groove.

Wolfgang Riess

Although they played at the back of the stage this didn't mean they were less important. People who already saw the band perform or witnessed one of their videos shot during a concert, know that the live sound of the band differs from the studio albums. On the albums everything sounds almost perfect, maybe even a bit over-produced. This is not the case when they reproduce the songs live on stage. Before the show Christian Hack told me that he never aims at playing copies of the studio versions. 'You might as well play the album loudly in your living room instead', he explained. So I didn't mind that during their performance the music sounded more unpolished. Thanks to the sound of the electric guitar the music sometimes sounded even heavier compared to the clean studio versions. Well, that was just how I liked it. What I also liked was Midnight, their final encore. With this song they ended a great set with a great piece from their download album Summer. This was recently released to provide their fans with something extra.

In April 2015 the band will return to the Netherlands in order to appear at the Progdreams Festival at Cultuurcentrum Boerderij in Zoetermeer. Guess who will be in front of the stage when they begin their performance..?

Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)