The Frank Pop Ensemble is not very known yet to a wide audience, though the audience has most likely heard his music on TV (commercials) and or the movies.  Clubsters into evenings packed with garage, Northern soul and other 60's and early 70's delights might have already witnessed Frank Popp behind the decks.  The Frank Popp Ensemble has been around basically since 1999, but is only at its second full album release.  The band has had airplay before and some following in especially England, Japan and Italy.  Meanwhile the band is ready to take on a wider audience as its sound has grown and it skills have been sharpened.

The band plays music based upon Northern soul, R&B, garage rock, soundtracks, freakbeat, ...  Basically I would simply describe it as quality pop.  The band blends the instrumentation of a different era (farfisa, hammond, guitar, bass, drums, horns and vocals) with modern technology (sampling and sequencing).  Though the music can be catalogued each time per song into a specific genre I would prefer to range it all under pop.  It is pop with big band interplay at times.  Pop with roots into a wide history of popular and more underground music. If you look for other references, bands and artists alike... We would call upon a wide variety of past heroes such as Peter Gabriel, The Three Degrees, Corduroy, Serge Gainsbourg, ... and more contemporary ones such as Goldfrapp, Les Baxter, Propellerheads...

Sometimes the band sounds as a big band playing pop while a rock guitarist jams along.  The sound of the band really breathes positivism and the neutrally positive sphere of the 80's that made pop to an icon of a generation.  While doing this the band actually manages to cram 4 decades o f musical history into their creative process.  Sometimes they play Motown soul with fuzzy prog-rock organs such as on "Leave ME Alone" and on other occasions they play real genuine disco with a French pop touch and some 90's electro-groove accent such as "Foncé Dans Le Coeur".  Yet another track, "Psychedelic Girl" is close to what Peter Gabriel does, but then with a lot more sense of swing.  Actually the whole CD is a fantastic example of how refreshing pop can be while it can be much more then a piling up of formal structures and fixed elements.  Pop has escaped the boundaries of predictability and habitude...  Pop is a feeling, a state of mind, a way of living... It is about non-complex approaches and accessible tunes.  It is about melody and recognisable sounds.  It is about fun and energy.  And that is exactly what you get when you indulge in the music if the Frank Popp Ensemble.  Prime-Pop !

Artist : Frank Popp Ensemble

Title : Touch and Go

Label : Unique

Review date : 19/05/2006
Reviewed by : Joeri De Ren
Frank Popp Ensenmble Pop album Touch and Go