The Truth About Frank - The Carrion EP

The Truth About Frank is a duo of men based in Leeds who apparently are both named Frank. Not really knowing a whole lot about them, they have released a few EPs and one full length album, Cannibal Work Ethic in 2011 which was well received. However, now it's time to take a listen to The Carrion, the latest EP from the Franks.

"At the age of 6, your older sister pulled her own dead body by the hand of a ladder to a hole in the wall just large enough for the two of them to squeeze through," are the first lines that are fed through your speakers in the beginning twenty two minute song, About Frank. And, what you get is an electronically experimental sound set that commences through more samples, glitchy electronics, and creepy ambient sounds that never cease to haunt and inspire. The song definitely moves in phases, going from one edge to another, and that was what I liked about the song. It's hard to say if there really was anything all too horrid with the overall outcome of the track; a lot of it was fun and frenzied, different, and unique. Moved a lot, never ceasing to become stale from one sound over another. Quite a work, odd but nice.

Organism Dying In Transit was a nine minute piece rendered by these two. Separated into three different distinct sections this time around, the first focused on a quieter sound, that slowly built up with sight drums and the occasional help from synths, but mostly relied on the plethora of effects plundering it. The second came into a standard dark ambient play, while the third section reminded me of the mind of an over-stressed office worker. The insanity of it all played nicely, the random chanting in the background, while quite redundant and annoying, served good purpose.

Lastly, the shortest track on the EP, SmoKing, brought in more electronic noises with an ambient atmosphere to it all. Well done and interesting. And, I do praise this album a whole lot, but, still, I can't help but feel as if a lot of it is disjointed. Put together well on its own, but it could just be more fluid, more conjugated in sound rather than having one too many sounds playing over top one another without much of a purpose other than to make noise. I do like their style, and I do wish to hear more from them, and my slight issues with the album won't stop me from enjoying it, but I am a critic, and hopefully these gents will walk away from this with good constructive criticism. But, yea, give it a listen, and if you like it, buy it. Jul 22 2014