FRIH DRAH

A recent progarchives.com forum thread discussed the value of recording quality when determining ratings for albums. Frih Drah by newcomer Time Structure is an example of how it is not always a cut and dried matter. Not to mention the subject of recording quality encompasses many different facets of the process. How it relates in this case I will return to later.
Time Structure is a progressive rock band from Marseille, France with no apparent press or documentation behind them. The album in question here, Frih Drah appears to be their only release thus far, released digitally on Bandcamp in April of 2020. The names of the participants are a mystery as well. If I trust my ear, I can identify classic prog rock instrumentation of keyboard (piano and synth), bass, guitar and vocals. What is not a mystery is that the 3 pieces that make up this album are top tier compositions, with only the second song, Lizard, coming in at 2 seconds less than 10 minutes (the other two just exceed 11 minutes). The band tags themselves as psychedelic rock. While it is true that there are instrumental elements and an underlying core of psychedelic influence, the structure of the compositions has a much more symphonic nature than most psychedelic rock. And much of the time that compositional element carries the songs into gothic and ambient realms. To round the picture, the players are not afraid to get dirty as well, with heavy (not quite metal) stanzas that push the anxiety factor in these songs that are easily resolved in the following passages. Ideas are allowed to develop with apparent maturity. Indeed, the writing as a whole as absolutely top shelf.
Unfortunately, there are serious problems with the execution. and herein lies the discussion about sound quality and where those contexts lie. Overall, the recording quality as such that it can be accepted, indeed even embraced as part of a period approach and an attempt to not overly slather the work with neo- progressive production clichés. Where the problem comes in is what appear to be single take tracking, particularly with the vocals. There are many instances where the vocalist is just plain out of tune. And this occurs with the very first vocal passage on the opener, Falling Structures, which derails a tremendous lead-in of over 5 minutes. Extremely disappointing in that her vocal tone is quite pleasant. Perhaps they were running out of studio time and could only do one take. It is baffling, given the abilities of post-production in even home studios in the 21st century that allows for correction of such front-end issues. While these problems are foremost with the vocals, they are not limited to the facet. A section of the closer, Why, has a guitar part that is out of tune. It gives the appearance of a rushed to completion production. This is an example of an album where I would sacrifice a significant amount of fidelity in the recording to have the accuracy issues corrected.
Frih Drah has the level of creativity in composition and texture to be one of those dark horse album of the year contenders. Sadly, the delivery in the recording process has degrading a masterpiece to what I would call just a good album. That being said, Time Structure has an incredible potential if they continue to head in their current musical direction. I look forward to their future works. And who knows? Maybe one day Frih Drah can be re-recorded to allow it to blossom into the masterpiece it should probably be.