FROB

One of the many German Krautrock bands turned jazz-fusion toward the second half of the 1970s, FROB was a cut above the grade with four fine musicians that excelled in competent technical jazz-fusion instrumental workouts that retained some subtle Krautish psychedelic atmospheres from the earlier part of the decade. This quartet consisted of three Germans: Peter Schmits (keyboards), Klaus-Dieter Richter (bass), Peter Meuffels (drums) and the Paris born guitarist Philippe Caillat. FROB existed for five years from 1973 to 1977 and formed in the Nordrhein-Westfalen city of Rheda-Wiedenbrück. Despite a five year run FROB released only this one self-titled album that emerged in 1976.

Where the FROB name came from is a mystery but on this sole release these four guys dished out some serious jazz-fusion chops completely without any vocals. The style is somewhat typical of the German progressive jazz-rock fusion sounds of the late 70s with an emphasis on improvisation over cyclical grooves and impressive instrumental interplay centered around Caillat's blistering guitar antics and Meuffels' precision percussive mastery. The keyboards were more prominent than many a jazz-rock band from that era and emulated some of the Canterbury greats like Hatfield & the North and oft revealed a psychedelic connection to the German Kraut scene.

The album featured only tracks that just missed 40 minutes, an entire career in less than an hour but for a single album FROB did an excellent job at keeping the tracks distinct and delivered with a fiery passion. Excellent bass grooves and independent yet connectied counterpoints showcased FROB's brilliant playing style that offered some of the best jazz-rock scenes from all of Germany. The album was recorded in southern France where Caillat was working as a music teacher. He asked to join the other three guys after seeing them play live as a trio and the chemistry really shows on this fine jazz-fusion release.

Only 1000 copies were made of the original vinyl edition and FROB still remains fairly obscure even amongst prog stalwarts who have scoured the burgeoning underground but those who have discovered this underground gem pretty much unanimously become enamored with it upon a single listening experience. Despite the excellent guitar playing and the superb stylistic approach of the keyboards, the star of this show is clearly drummer Meuffels who crafted some extraordinarily complex drum rolls and technical workouts often at machine gun speeds and precision. His energy pushes the limits of this fast tempo style of jazz-fusion and although not quite up to the creative levels of Mahavishnu Orchestra, the musical performances are so adept that this was love at first listen.

For lovers of high quality jazz-fusion, you really can't go wrong with FROB. While not the most overly original on the scene, the band more than makes up for that with its virtuosic full-speed-ahead approach to charging through the tracks and make it sound ridiculously easy in the process. While disco and punk were ruling the world's music scene, thankfully a few determined underground progressively minded bands were still cranking out such high quality technical music for those who were still under the spell of the early 70s prog scene. One of the many one and done bands of the era but luckily FROB's one and only album is an underground classic even if it's not an unabashed long lost masterpiece of the ages.