Archive for the tag "peter margasak"

As interesting as the acidic production by Royal Trux was on Edith Frost’s Telescopic last year, hindsight reveals that simple suits her better.  Frost’s new single Love Is Real (Drag City) was produced by Rian Murphy — who did such a good job on her debut, Calling Over Time — and features some lovely acoustic melancholia laid down by Archer Prewitt, Rick Rizzo, Ryan Hembrey, and Mark Greenberg.

On her second album, produced by Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux, Edith Frost has replaced the acoustic gentility of her previous recordings with electric gentility, her rootsy melancholia with fuzzed-out psychedelia. But her beautifully understated serpentine melodies remain a constant, and the backup — Rian Murphy, Ryan Hembrey, Amy Domingues, Jean Cook, and Jason Quick, on drums, bass, guitar, and a lot of violin — still caresses her siren’s croon rather than shaping it. Although it would be nice to hear her try a tempo other than mid, Frost obviously has that rare desire to transform herself from within and the even rarer ability to pull it off.

Gentle Frost

After sending unsolicited demo tapes to a handful of record labels a couple of years ago, Edith Frost found herself in a strange situation. A novice songwriter, she attracted the attention of two respected labels that couldn’t have been more different: Austin’s forward-looking roots-rock Dejadisc imprint and Chicago’s indie-rock experimentalist outlet Drag City. On a gut instinct she chose the latter, but openly wonders about what might have transpired with the former. "I don’t know how it would’ve turned out," Frost says, "but I’m sure the recordings would’ve been slicker and I probably would’ve moved home to Austin instead of to Chicago." Between her eponymous four-song debut, which Drag City released this summer, and her full album, already recorded and due next April, it’s clear Frost would have done well either way: the shy 30-year-old Texan might be the most distinctive and gifted singer-songwriter to surface in the last year or two.