James LaBrie: vocals

Henning Pauly: Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Bass, Piano, B3, Synthesizer, Warr Guitar, Banjo, Hand Percussion, Loop Programming, Orchestration.

Eddie Marvin: Drums

Guests:

Nik Guadagnoli: Additional Guitars, Bass, Chapman Stick

Shawn Gordon: Keyboard

Steve Katsikas: Saxophone

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Prog(metal)

Frameshift is a new project with James LaBrie, brought to life by and with Henning Pauly, but later more about him. Let’s start with burying some prejudices. Just forget all what you think and feel about James Labrie, good or bad, and listen to this record without any prejudice, as if it concerns a completely new band.

On the site of Frameshift, you can find three goals that they wanted to achieve with this album. First of all, “produce an album featuring James LaBrie in ways that no one has heard him before”. And this certainly worked out fine. James, finally freed of the wall of sound of Dream Theater, gives the best performance I’ve ever heard from him. Sometimes it’s even a bit exaggerated in the other direction, because the music is on some tracks a bit too far in the background. And there certainly is a lot of Labrie around, sometimes a whole LaBrie choir, as he’s doing the backings as well.

The second goal to achieve: “Combine the elements of progressive rock, film scoring and very modern production”. And again, a goal more than achieved. There are some progmetal tracks, but only a few. The rest are ballads, songs with hit potential, more progressive songs with a lot of symphonic elements,... I called the style of this album, prog(metal), but it certainly has a big emphasis on the prog, with the metal only in a few songs.

And finally the third goal: “Use the work of Richard Dawkins (one of today's most influential neo-Darwinist writers) as a concept that connects all the pieces on the album”. Indeed, this is a very interesting concept. You can read all about it, and even comments on the different songs on Frameshift’s website. (http://frameshift.progrockrecords.com/)

Not only Labrie did some fine work on this album, but the greatest contribution is from multi-instrumentalist Henning Pauly. You may have never heard of him, but you can also read about him in my review on the album from his band Chain.("Reconstruct" ). He’s really awesome. He’s doing a great job on every instrument, and especially the interaction between the instruments is fabulous. In some tracks, the keyboards, drums and guitars are playing rhythmic sequences that form a melody when you hear them together.

A few highlights:
The longest track “Message From The Mountain” contains a lot of symphonic elements. Part of the song is more progmetal, but the rest is as if a whole symphonic orchestra is playing. (every credit to Henning Pauly).
“Your Eyes”, a rather poppy semi-ballad, with beautiful vocals accompanied by acoustic rhythm guitar and some subtle piano.
“La Mer”, a ballad, with a quiet and emotional Labrie, as I’ve never heard him before. Some wonderful piano playing by Henning.
“Nice Guys Finnish First” is a very groovy track, with some splendid vocal harmonies that could have come straight from the Yes album “90125”.
Even the heaviest track, “Arms Races”, contains a quiet break in the middle piece. In fact, every track has a surprising twist.
“Origins And Miracles”, a quiet bluesy ballad, accompanied by a sensitive, clean guitar sound. And I have to mention it once more, a great LaBrie.
“Walking Through Genetic Space”: I never thought I would ever hear this, a lot of Labries singing together in a capella, but here it is, and it’s great.
A total of 15 tracks, none of which I dislike.

As you can read in the liner notes of the CD, Henning and LaBrie are thanking one another and speaking about the great time they had in the studio. This reflects very well in their music and sound and I have to say, I would to like to add a liner note to say how much I enjoyed it as a listener. I enjoyed his MullMuzzler project, but this album contains stronger songs and even better musicians. It certainly is a lot more progressive. I hope this story about genetics produces a lot of descendants.