Robot Elephant Records

Ourobonic Plague - GAAP

Music we are digging in the Robot Elephant Towers #5 

A bit of a gap here in our weekly series of MWADITRET, due to travels and festivals not having enough time to maintain this, but we are now back to normal business, this time with a certain individual based out of Perth / Australia going by the name Ourobonic Plague, I am following since a bit less than a year, someone who has proven to be able to constantly improve his sound, refine his style and incrementally ramping up the quality of his tracks.

Following an AMDisc Album Release of “Moon Worship” and an excellent self-released single Spirit /// Gremlins, GAAP is at the moment the pinnacle of his creative output- as there are actually real songs in there, structured and compressed to a digestible 3-4 Minute format, and on top of that banging, banging in the strictest sense of the meaning of the word “banging”, especially the Goth-Hop opener “Alec Holland Is Dead” and the techno/industrial stomper “Sea Beyond” - it’s definitely worth spending a couple hard-earned bucks on it, for sure!

Snowman - Hyena

#4 in “Music we are digging in the Robot Elephant Towers” - or MWADITRET, which will be presented every Wednesday, this time with Snowman and a song that is possibly my song of the year - Hyena!

This time choosen by Anthony GDLI, but could have also thought about it really… what an incredible song and too bad this amazing band is calling it a day, but not without leaving a landmark album that will range among the top 10 of 2011 over here, that’s for sure!

Planningtorock - The Breaks - #3 in “Music we are digging in the Robot Elephant Towers” - or MWADITRET, which will be presented every Wednesday, this time with Panningtorock - The Breaks.

What the hell is this music?!?! How incredible is that and how come I haven’t heard of Planningtorock until recently, basically being unable to get out of the way while this next-level avant-garde pop artist is making her way towards the top??!

This reminds me of some of my favourite bands - Fever Ray and Dirty Projectors - but alltogether being it’s very own vision of pop music, trying everything in being different from it’s peers, and ultimately succeeding gloriously, be it the instrumentation, which prominently features saxophone, over the artistic visual style, sporting disforming facial prostheses, to experimenting with distorted voices, not being shy of demonstrating a strong voice of her own on this track The Breaks. What a chorus as well in this track, made to hum along and stuck in your brain for the rest of the year and beyond… “… we break to easily…. ” …. 

(Source: vimeo.com)

Music we’re digging in the Robot Elephant Towers #2 - Tropic of Cancer - A Color

The second installment of weekly posts about “music that we are digging in the Robot Elephant Towers” (or short MWADITRET), which will be presented every Wednesday, is about the new, exciting band hailing from Los Angeles via Minneapolis - Tropic of Cancer.

Their sound is as minimal as their line-up, consisting of two people called John Mendez and Camella Lobo. However this incredible minimalism works in the same way as for instance RER favorites Factory Floor or Moon Duo- a motorik beat, drone guitars and eiry vocals, but causing a maximal effect in your brain and body - the heavy psych sounds are entrancing and the beats cause rhythmic spasms in your limbs. 

All together an incredible duo, defining their own particular post-punk sound, of which I can’t wait to hear more and hopefully seeing live soon.

This song has been released on a 12” called “The Sorrow of Two Blooms” by fellow London label Blackest Ever Black who also got Regis and Raime on their page - a fittingly minimal but impressive roaster.

They got 2 more records out- on a label called “Downwards” - both being released on 10” vinyl and equally enthralling to me.

Music we’re digging in the Robot Elephant Towers #1 - Modern Witch - Desire

I thought I am starting a little series of weekly posts about music that we are digging in the Robot Elephant Towers (or short MWADITRET), which will be presented every Wednesday.

No. 1 is the incredibly banging track Modern Witch - Desire, which I can’t get out of my head! Is has been released about a month ago as a 7” Vinyl Record by our friends over in Berkeley - Tundra Dubs, which is still up for grabs but only 300 copies, so get it quickly! The other side of this lovely single comes from Os Ovni called Love.   Now the observant reader will probably have discovered by now that we are working on a cooperation with Tundra Dubs - a new compilation called, *drumroll*, Robot Elephant vs. Tundra  Dubs, each label curating 5 songs per side. Details + track listing will be unveiled later in this month of August - I can only say one thing, it’s going to be immense!

On top of that we are also working on a new release with above mentioned Os Ovni so I would recommend everyone to check out their swag.

No this new column shouldn’t be a shameless self-plug, it’s all about amazing music that hasn’t been released on Robot Elephant Records, so all now please listen to Modern Witch - Desire, and watch the video directed by Denver video art titan Sterling Crispin.