Gert Fröbe is a solo stompbox lo-fi project from New York music vet Stephen Caratzas. He's working, right now, on a chapter-by-chapter soundtrack to William S. Bourroughs' novel, Exterminator! Until then, we have the delightfully crunchy tracks you can find on his bandcamp page, http://gertfrobe.bandcamp.com.
Before we begin into the review proper, I want to admit that this was a new experience for me. The closest thing to lo-fi that I had ever experienced was bad mixing on the CDs that local bands used to crank out. (And maybe trying to hear the waitress at the Waffle House after going to all those very loud shows at the JayCees building, back home.) When I first encountered the term, I wasn't sure what to think. Curiosity won out, however, and now I am edified.
My favorite track might be "Abort All Jorts," which I think highlights the incredibly solid nature of this style. I wasn't expecting the weighted substance you'll find in these tracks, nor the variety. It's all guitar-driven, with toothy bass filling in from the back. I try not to mention the faces I make while I listen to music, as I like to cop to some pretended dignity, but songs like "Abort All Jorts" and "Wrecked Deadening" inspire that rock sneer in me. In these tracks, it's very easy to feel what Caratzas is reaching for. "Das Black Mantra Echo" is similar, very rock-driven, very propelling beat to it.
Caratzas has certainly made the rounds on the New York City underground circuits, and his previous bands all show a similar commitment to live sound. Instead of fiddling with fidelity and meddling with meticulous mixing, there's an inclination to make certain that the feeling is there. It's brute force music, pared down for effectiveness. And that's a good thing.
Stephen Caratzas spent about a dozen years between the mid-1980s to the late 1990s playing guitar all over the NYC club scene in numerous bands, including: Bob, The Original Rays, Frank's Museum, So It Goes, The Moe, The X-Rays and Full Vinyl Jacket.
As part of the Brooklyn Beat scene, headquartered in Park Slope, Brooklyn, his bands were featured on the Brooklyn Beat label compilations Today Brooklyn, Tomorrow The World; Beat This; and Brooklyn Beat Live At CBGB.
After taking a few years off from music to pursue Master's Degrees in Media Studies and Poetry, the itch to create sound was revived in March of 2011 with the creation of his one-man recording project, Gert Fröbe. The band is named for the German actor who portrayed the title character in the James Bond film Goldfinger. "I always wanted a band with an umlaut, a la Motörhead, Blue Öyster Cult, etc. Plus I have a very sincere appreciation for Mr. Fröbe's performance in the Bond film. I think both the character of Goldfinger and the film are iconic," Caratzas notes.
The music is influenced by a diverse range of musicians from guitarists Lou Reed, Robert Quine, Derek Bailey and Nels Cline to jazz luminaries Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman and heavily inspired by the current DIY lo-fi aesthetic.
"It's just me, a few guitars, many, many stomp boxes and a laptop," Caratzas says. "Everything is recorded directly via USB cables, and a large number of samples—particularly found drum beats and "anything that sounds like it will be a challenge to fit in"—are used to create the music of Gert Fröbe.
"The effects vary from song to song, but I have a ridiculous number of fuzz boxes, overdrives, delays and loopers, reverbs, pretty much anything that makes a sound most people might recoil from," Caratzas adds. "I love the possibilities of sound inherent in the electric guitar, and creating these pieces is very meditative and quite similar to writing poems."
So download these nerve-shattering tracks by Gert Fröbe:
I Will
Das Black Mantra Echo
Wrecked Deadening
Abort All Jorts
Then check out GertFrobe.com!
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