Customer Reviews

Amateur View

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While borrowing certain experimental sounds from the likes of Autechre, these German lads nevertheless manage to make music immediately listenable, immediately enjoyable, and unquestioningly excellent. This album is the happy medium between frosty chill-out music (Global Communication, Aphex's ambient stuff) and intense drill-press music (Solar X, Autechre). From the first track, "I Am in the World with You," to the masterful "Tomorrow," to the even more masterful "Cars," to the final track, "Das Blau und der Morgen," this album is stark, beautiful, esoteric, and hummable. Yes, hummable! Weird sounds mix with lush atmospherics to create sounds that you actually find yourself thinking about long after you've finished listening. Not only that, but each song on this album is under 5 minutes in length. How many electronic albums can you say that about?

Plonks, Blips, and beeps, these are the sounds of To Rococo Rot, but instead of the usual programmed whonkery they make a beautiful, warm brand of techno. This is the melancholy music your computer would listen to as the sun sets. Or these days, the soundtrack to a VW Beetle ad.

The palette of instruments is essentially the same on each song, with drums, synth melodies, occasional strings or acoustical guitar backing up the various bleepery. Occasionally the band resemble early Autechre ("This Sandy Piece") or grate more than fascinate ("She loves Animals") , but as a whole they succeed in bringing warmth to cold machinery. And at a little over 40 minutes, they get their point across without getting too monotonous.

After first hearing of this German trio when they collaborated with Saint Etienne, I decided to pick up a copy of their CD. "A three-man explosion of electronic excellence," proclaimed the sticker next to the price tag. I shrugged and decided to give it a try. I put The Amateur View on as background to what I was doing, and I'm not sure if I ever really heard the music. Instead, it just sort of melted into the general atmosphere of the room. It was only when the CD had finished that I realized the music had actually invaded my subconscious. I wanted more. Upon closer listening, one can hear distinctions between the songs. "Tomorrow" has an apprehensive edge to it; "She Loves Animals" has a certain wild feel; and the single "Cars" is just an obliviously happy little number. Permeating all the songs, though, is a sense of calm. With the exception of a few bursts of static, the music is unobtrusive and quiet, blipping away at a casual, unconcerned pace. I wouldn't call it ambient, though, with the exception of the last two tracks; there's too much going on in the songs. The music reminds me a little of Autechre, but without the drill-press mentality that some of their work possesses.

Well, whatever genre this fits in, The Amateur View is a winner. After the 42 minutes of playing time had finished, I clicked the mouse and started the CD again. I didn't know to what place To Rococo Rot had taken me with their music - all I knew was that I was definitely not ready to leave. Not until I listened just one more time...

Amateur View is by far one of the most intelligent electronic albums out there. It's beauty lies in it's minimalist approach. Unlike other electronic albums, with songs that seem to go on forever and an unending bass beat, Amateur View relies on the bare essentials. It's quite a calming and ethereal album that manages to push electronic music to a different level. "Telema" is my favorite track.

This CD is great, just about every song is worth listening to. "Cars" is one of the most popular for a good reason. My personal favorites are "This Sandy Piece" and "Die Dinge Des Lebens". I don't have any idea what that second title means, but its a great song.

Right now the greatest chilloutzone for both amateurs and professionals. The atmosphere will also give you a greater view to life, and when you get to track number 8 (called Cars), everything will be just fine.

As a bona fide electronica buff, I really wanted to like this album having heard so may good things about it. To me, however, this was a major disappointment. It's perfectly listenable, but a bit too cheesey, predictable and well...Euro for my taste. It's competent but falls short of being remarkable, inspring, or intriguing. Its all a matter of taste, of course. No doubt many of you will love this: it's just not original or adventurous enough to stick out from the crowd.

The first thing i wanna say is... they produced for Saint Etienne! The match is perfect, 'The Sound of Water' is simply the best SE album EVER! To Rococo Rot are geniuses, really! Seemingly, this is just some bleeping sound, no big deal, lots of Warp bands have done that before. However, if you really pay attention to the soundscape of the album, you will find that they have actually achieved something nobody has done before, they pushed the boundary of post-ambient music ever further. I know terminology bores these artists, but this is ground-breaking. Althogh this lot hails from Germany, they are clearly influenced by Mouse on Mars, you cannot really say they are a Krautrock band or a post-rock band though. Maybe they are an avant garde chill-out band. Like Air, they injected a warmth into the cool electronic sound they created, combining the synthetic with the organic, this is what you get. At times, this is playful, however, this gives different feelings as the music flows on. Buy it now!

Si bien este disco de To Rococo Rot podría enmarcarse dentro del ámbito de la música electrónica (aunque también algo al post-rock), debido al uso de ese tipo de instrumentos, su mayor mérito consiste en desviarse de ciertos odiosos parámetros de ese estilo, como la monotonía. Justamente, en este disco podemos agradecer la presencia de canciones de una duración moderada, en las que hay un buen uso de las progresiones y dinámicas, donde aparecen quiebres y variaciones y donde existe un buen rango de variedad en los tempos (que, sin embargo, no llegan a ser tan neuróticos y machacantes como el house, ni tan difusos y etéreos como el ambient). Por otro lado, el uso de instrumentos análogos, como el bajo y las percusiones, contribuye a darle más "humanidad" (y menos aritmética) a lo que escuchamos, creando una ambiente, si bien algo cibernético, bastante cálido. Además, hay un inteligente y armónico uso de la superposición de voces, ya sean éstas ruidos (naturales o eléctricos), acordes sostenidos o melodías propiamente tales. Lo que podemos oír, en consecuencia, es un grupo que no se queda en la autocomplacencia de la electrónica, dedicándose a disfrutar de los sonidos que producen y combinarlos sin ocupar mayormente su sensibilidad. Por el contrario, aquí se puede disfrutar de mucha melodiosidad y de emociones que van desde la seriedad a cierta diversión y hasta el romanticismo.

P.D.: recomiendo escuchar, en una línea similar, al grupo inglés Black Dog.