Frosted Ambassador

Remember all those noodly squeals on the last Olivia Tremor Control album? Well, I guess Eric is somewhat responsible for those, seeing as they’re all over the place on his Frosted Ambassador solo project. For some reason he’d rather keep the Ambassador’s identity a secret, seeing as the colourful CD sleeve is completely devoid of information other than that the album was recorded to cassette four-track and reel to reel two-track. Even the song names are absent, with the listener invited to fill in their own. Fair enough. The sweet psych pop melodies of OTC are evident on a handful of standout numbers that are definitely worth the price of admission with Syd Barrett and the Beatles being the most obvious points of reference. (I won’t bother telling you what I named the tracks I liked.) While the album is jam-packed full of inventive and entertaining ideas in the guise of keyboard riffs of programmed beats, most of them remain unfinished and merely act as intriguing segues between the actual songs that pop up. The wacky sonic segments conjure trippy atmospherics but I won’t be surprised if these themes rise again on future Elephant Six projects.