Music Is a Hungry Ghost

To Rococo Rot, ??????????&I.???? | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 8, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mute U.S.
• ASIN: B00005CCC6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #414,431 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. A Number of Things

2. For A Moment

3. How We Never Went To Bed

4. First

5. From Dream To Daylight

6. Your Secrets, A Few Words

7. Along The Route

8. Overhead

9. Kotu

10. Pantone

11. Mazda In The Mist

12. She Tended To Forget

13. The Trance Of Travel

Editorial Reviews

From URB Magazine

To Rococo Rot may not be the only band melding aesthetics both organic and digital these days - it seems that everyone from Luke Vibert to BT has gone the route of musical cyborg genetics. But the German brothers Lippok, alongside Kriedler bassist Stefan Schneider and New York native producer I-Sound (aka Craig Williamson), have the science down to an art.

Music is a Hungry Ghost, the Berliners' fourth album to date, manages to fuse the two in a sublime manner that avoids the pratfall of kitschy overstatement. Weaving a spell around the listener, digital washes of sound pulse in (and out of) time with Schneider's bass licks and guest violinist Alexander Balanescu's eerie bowing. Although To Rococo Rot takes obvious cues from labelmates Pan Sonic and foundational "glitch" artist Oval (hiccuping CD skips and gurgles sweep through "A Number of Things") the human warmth they bring to a song (for those of us who remember when a song wasn't just a DJ-spun "track") elevates them to the hypnotic levels initially elevated by fellow Kraut rockers Can and Neu!. "From Dream to Daylight," a track on which Balanescu shines, and the most obvious nod to the sounds of Chicago's current post-rock scene, fiddles with an ambient bongo groove, paddling in a transcendental groove to rest atop coy whispers of violin and subtle percussive licks. Even those who tend to shy away from the abstract will find that most songs here eventually congeal into something coherent to groove to.

Adrienne Day

Product Description

The return of To Rococo Rot is one that we have anticipated eagerly here at the Neck. Recorded in collaboration with NYC wunderkid I-Sound, 'Music Is A Hungry Ghost' is a simply staggering piece of evocative beauty. Having pretty much invented the seamless fuse of harmonic accoustics and electronics, the brothers Lippok and Bernd Jestram have taken their time in producing what will inevitably be regarded as one of the finest LP's of 2001. Mute. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Music is more than just sound, July 13, 2001

By 

Dirk Hugo (Cape Town, South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Music Is a Hungry Ghost (Audio CD)

If music's merits were measured in atmosphere and texture alone, then To Rococo Rot would be considered one of the most innovative bands on the planet. The four members achieve a wonderfully cohesive sound that explores the space/density dichotomy with effortless grace. Unfortunately, as far as thematic development and melodic and harmonic complexity are concerned, "Music Is A Hungry Ghost" is decidedly primitive. So in time the locked grooves that establish such delicate interplay end up feeling more like incarceration than liberation, and what could have been warm and inviting sonic exploration begins to sound cold and aloof. More complex, enticing and listenable material is produced by the bands with which To Rococo Rot shares members - Kreidler and Tarwater.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beware of hungry ghosts bearing gifts..., October 27, 2005

By 

Stargrazer "the lost mixtape of my life" (deep in the heart of Michigan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Music Is a Hungry Ghost (Audio CD)

I received this CD as a promo several years ago while employed at a record shop. One of many CDs I received in this manner, listened to a few times and passed on to friends...

...except this one I kept, and listened to again and again. Odd, considering I'm no electronica afficionado. This is definitely not your garden variety 4/4 beats. Compositions are short but superbly developed. The music has an organic feel, as of live instruments delicately cut-and-pasted and looped. The crackly turntablism and evocative violin crop up at just the right places. It has basslines Tortoise would be proud of. It made me go out and buy "Veiculo" and "Amateur View." All three albums are highly enjoyable and reward repeated listens. This is warm, inviting listening with lots of subtleties. I want their whole catalog!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Subterranean Favorite, March 22, 2011

By 

Brock Bingaman (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Music Is a Hungry Ghost (Audio CD)

This is a fantastic album. Rooted in Krautrock, filled with interesting sounds from a future laboratory, and infused with the DJ touches of I Sound, this album often provokes the question, "WHO is this?!" We used to play it in our shoe store, Subterranean Shoe Room (in San Francisco's Mission District), and it was a favorite of our customers. I can't tell you how many times I answered this question, wrote down the info on a business card, and sent the person to Aquarius Records or Amoeba Music to grab their own copy.