FRODE FIVEL – DON’T ROCK THE BOAT

Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today, we’ve been listening to Don’t Rock The Boat, the latest single from Frode Fivel from Norway.

Frode Fivel are Magnus Abelsen (guitar), Fredrik Brarud (drums), André Helle (bass) and Knut Øyvind Olsen (keyboards).

Don’t Rock The Boat starts with a real dreamy feeling introduction. A gorgeous organ drones in the background under a bed of interesting picked guitars. The vocals are warm and pleasant to listen to.

When the harmonies come in, you feel like the song is about to build into a huge crescendo. A piano plays single notes in time with the vocals and the full drum kit comes in. We love the Pink Floyd feeling bass line and the song has an instant 60s/70s feel – you could imagine Don’t Rock The Boat sitting comfortably on a Roger Waters album – The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking springs to mind. Perhaps a touch of Roger Hodgson (Supertramp) here as well. This song sits within our wheelhouse of influences from bands we adore and we loved every moment of it.

The rise and fall within this track presents a truly dynamic soundscape and you find yourself utterly engrossed and hooked with every single moment of this track. We love the flam-like snare in the second verse and the wailing guitar over the harmony vocals as the song develops.

The tambourine and layered vocals add some great moments of tension and the drum fills on the toms are exciting and display some quality musicianship.

The song ends gently, bringing the listener full circle back to a calm and gentle conclusion.

Ideas from our ears

A boost around 50Hz would bring up the ‘thump’ in the kick drum, and an additional boost around 130Hz would also thicken up the low end a bit. A wide cut centred around 500-600Hz would reduce some ‘honky’ and ‘nasal’ tones while a boost across the high mids and highs centred around 10kHz would increase the brightness and presence in the track, balancing the overall sound out a little better. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears.

Final thoughts

Fans of Pink Floyd, Supertramp and Art rock, in general, will be absorbed by this track and return to it on many occasions. This is timeless quality music from a very classy Norwegian band. We’re looking forward to hearing much more.