To Rococo Rot + I-Sound - Music Is A Hungry Ghost
I was listening to a few old Nick Cave records recently and it occurred to me what his secret was. It isn't just his magnetic voice, but also the whiff of menace that seems to snake beneath his words. You find yourself checking over your shoulder occasionally as well as turning on more lights than you need in any room as his music is on the stereo. To Rococo Rot and I-Sound infuse that same darkness throughout their recent collaborative effort, Music Is A Hungry Ghost. Much like Boards of Canada's Music Has a Right to Children, and its buoyant playfulness, Music Is A Hungry Ghost fully embodies its title. It opens with "A Number of Things"--a spattering bass note and a back-masked vocal effect--the industrialized effects of a nocturnally vibrant city. "How We Never Went to Bed" rolls along damp city streets at 4am. The sun has set hours ago--a lifetime ago--and, while you think the horizon should be bleeding pink and orange soon, it hasn't happened yet and the streets are still filled with gliding shadows. To Rococo Rot has always stated that their musical efforts have been an attempt to craft electronic music that has more of a home outside the club atmosphere, a sound that fits the fleeting impressionistic moments of the city.
Anchored by Stefan Schneider's bass lines and corralled by Craig Williamson's cut-up manifesto, Robert and Ronald Lippok weave their electronic melodies in the graceful space between the dark and the light, making songs that will never burn up a dance floor nor become elegiac reminders of a simpler childhood, but rather their songs fill the moments of our daily lives when we have a chance to disconnect from the monotony. "From Dream to Daylight" includes the soaring violin work of Alexander Balanescu and, amidst the distant sound of passing cars and popping asphalt and humming power lines, emerges a sonic daydream of a man riding public transportation yet yearning for the day when he can own his own vehicle and drive not just on the city streets but out of the city and into the country.
It's not just about being haunted, you see, Music Is a Hungry Ghost is all about finding grace and hope in a sterile, mechanized world. There is warmth and humor and life to be found in the electronic detritus that machines produce and Williamson (I-Sound) and the lads of To Rococo Rot have the same yearnings as we do: they want to be engaged and inspired by their world and not held down by its weight. There is a claustrophobic menace to the sound of this record, but that is simply what provides the shadows which enhance the edges of the record.
I-Sound
To Rococo Rot
City Slang [2001]
music
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