Frett – The World As A Hologram (Album – Ant-Zen)
Genre/Influences: Electro-Industrial, Minimal-Electro.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/Info: Behind Frett ishiding Maciek Frett, a Polish artist who you may know from his involvement with Job Karma and 7JK (a collaboration with Matt Howden from Sieben). He’s also organizing festivals in his homeland.
Content: This album is driven by Electronics, which are now pretty minimal and then into Industrial. The songs are meticulously built up, achieved with multiple effects and vocals alternating spooky- and enraged passages. There’re also a few spoken female vocals injecting a cold and sterile touch to the work. The global sphere supporting this work is dark. One of the most Electronic pieces (cf. “Judge”) reminds me a bit of The Klinik.
+ + + : This debut work sounds as a true revelation, but the artist is not a debutant, but an experienced musician. Maciek Frett brought different influences together, creating a perfect electronic osmosis between Industrial-, Experimental-, Minimal- and even Ambient Electronics. The work sounds mainly retro-like, which is mainly because of the sound treatments (analogue equipment has been used). There’s a great dynamic and bombast emerging from the drum sections, creating a cool contrast with the album’s minimal approach. “Isolation” is for sure the absolute masterpiece from this album.
– – – : There’s just one single song that couldn’t convince me and it unfortunately is the last one.
Conclusion: Frett has accomplished a work appealing for all lovers of early Electro-Industrial and Minimal-Electro music, transposing these influences into a refreshing approach.
Best songs: “Isolation”, “Two Cups”, “The Light”, “Trust”.
Rate: (8½).
Artist: www.facebook.com/maciek.frett
Label: www.ant-zen.com / www.facebook.com/antzen.official
About Frett
Frett is the solo project of Maciek Frett, a musician active on the Wrocław, Poland electronic music scene since the mid-1990s. He is also a member of Job Karma and of 7JK, a collaboration with Sieben’s Matt Howden, and curates the Wrocław Industrial Festival, Wrocław Underwater and Energy Of The Sound, performing and organizing concerts under the Industrial Art brand. According to Discogs, he has also mixed and mastered releases for a number of other Polish acts since 2001.
“The World As A Hologram” was composed, recorded and mixed by Frett at Sunsix Studio in Wrocław between December 2018 and March 2020, with additional vocals from Anna Frett, mastering by Eric Van Wonterghem at Prodam, and release on Ant-Zen on 4 September 2020 in collaboration with Gusstaff Records / Don’t Sit On My Vinyl. Frett went on to release the album “Nottwo” in 2023 and the single “End Beginning” on Ant-Zen in 2024. He appeared on the same festival bill as Liebknecht, Haujobb and Egoist at Energia Dźwięku in Wrocław, according to a 2021 Side-Line interview with the latter act.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
