[Reviewed by stark]
Frett is a solo attempt by Maciek Frett, an exact half of Job Karma, a duo which has received a lot of praise from us in the past. The album he did alone, between another JK releases surely has several common points with the project-mother, yet it differs enough to not be treated as a ground to inject the spare ideas from the last sessions by the duo from Wrocław.
I wonder if Frett will transform into a full-time project, or an enterprise which would be working on the same rules as Job Karma. You know, with lot of live performances all around Europe and all that. I don’t know that, it’s too early to say, but if I had to guess I would say no. I see that the tracks were recorded between December 2018 and March 2020, but I don’t suppose Maciek has worked on them all this time. The album seems to me like an effect of several creative sessions, when the outburst of ideas has resulted in flick getting all the sounds together and making a decent and honest song without thinking too much. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t say it’s a bad thing. Eight tracks, less than 40 minutes: almost like punk ethics are at work here.
And how does it come off when compared to Job Karma one would ask. Well, you will notice some familiar sounds and melodies here or there, but in general this music is rather more truculent than the contemporary JK face. By winking at other electronic genres, Maciek expands the creative horizons yet still being faithful to his idea of composition. Having this specific “jobkarmian” modern postindustrial as a foundation, in one track he can turn into an aggressive EBM direction (those distorted vocals do the job here), while other could easily find its place on the techno party. And I don’t mean a “goth” techno party, blah. There’s more acid than red wine, like in “Two Cups” if you’d remove those heavy percussion bits. “Flag” is raw industrial balancing on the verge of power electronics, mostly thanks to the vocal parts. Do I hear Test Dept. influences over there? And “Isolation” is basically another Job Karma track with harsh, almost noisy backgrounds.
Do I find “The World As A Hologram” a successful album? Yes, by all means. But do I like it more than Job Karma latest offerings? Here I’m not so sure about that, to be honest. I think JK albums are more multithreaded, so to speak, while Frett’s debut is a fistful of enjoyable blasts, nothing more, nothing less. Nevertheless, it’s a mandatory lecture for all Job Karma fans. If you miss another full album, it may be a good appetizer.
Frett – The World Is A Hologram
Gusstaff Records, Ant-Zen, Don’t Sit On My Vinyl
CD/LP/Digital 2020
Santa Sangre 