music is a hungry ghost, cd/lp
Co-produced by New York DJ and musician I-SOUND, MUSIC IS A HUNGRY GHOST is the fourth album from Germany's TO ROCOCO ROT. The Berlin and Düsseldorf based trio - brothers Robert and Ronald Lippok alongside Stefan Schneider - met Craig Willingham aka I-SOUND when they were touring the US in 1998 in support of their album Veiculo. Appearing one night on the same bill, TO ROCOCO ROT were fascinated by I-SOUND's mixture of hip-hop, dancehall, Musique Concrete and Techno that culminated in an energetic cut-up sound extravaganza. The experience led to Willingham travelling to Berlin in the autumn of 1998, when they recorded 'A Little Asphalt Here And There', which appeared on The Amateur View.
Delighted with the results, they met up again repeatedly in Berlin, Cologne and New York, performing, DJ-ing and recording together. MUSIC IS A HUNGRY GHOST is essentially the fruit of these sessions, with I-SOUND's contributions giving the record a suitably intense and occasionally almost claustrophobic atmosphere. It also features further collaboration with the composer and violinist Alexander Balanescu, who has worked with artists as diverse as Pet Shop Boys and Kate Bush. He joins TO ROCOCO ROT on two tracks, 'Along The Route' and 'From Dream To Daylight', his spellbinding violin adding a further dimension to the band's already sophisticated but enchanting sound.
TO ROCOCO ROT have existed now for over six years. They formed in 1995, when the Lippok brothers were invited by the owner of a gallery in which they were exhibiting their art to record some music instead of providing a catalogue. Rising to the challenge, they invited bassist Stefan Schneider from up and coming Düsseldorf based Kreidler to join them, and the result was their debut album, released by Kitty-Yo in late 1995. In the years since, they have released two more albums for City Slang (Veiculo and The Amateur View), EPs for City Slang, Sub Pop, Fat Cat and Soul Static Sound, and toured Europe and the US. They were also behind ST Etienne's recent highly acclaimed album, The Sound Of Water, have remixed artists as diverse as Leftfield, Appliance, Mira Calix and Wolfgang Voight, and have somehow found time to produce two radio plays and even a soundtrack to a documentary entitled No Ordinary Cowboy. Stefan Schneider has also released two mini albums under the name Mapstation, and releases a 12" for Domino Record's Series 500 in March, while Ronald Lippok continues to work on his acclaimed Tarwater project. Robert Lippok has also just released his debut solo material on Raster Noton Records.
The TO ROCOCO ROT sound is quite unlike any other. Those familiar with their previous work will find that MUSIC IS A HUNGRY GHOST sees the band refine their talent for sumptuous and restrained instrumental soundscapes, underpinned by Stefan Schneider's lugubrious basslines. But it also exhibits even greater skill at resolving the conflict between abstract electronica and contemporary dance music. The new album sees TO ROCOCO ROT at their most accessible, weaving intricate melodies amongst intimate sounds, whilst maintaining the trademark warmth and elegance that has always lain deep at the heart of their sound. It is this that distinguishes them from their harsher sonic contemporaries (who are, it should be noted, not so-called post rock acts like former label mates Tortoise, but instead the likes of Boards Of Canada.
But MUSIC IS A HUNGRY GHOST is less a commercialisation of the TO ROCOCO ROT style, and more a distillation of what they have always been about, the combination of random sounds with a structure that slowly reveals itself. Their stated aim has always been the transfer of electronic music from the club to everyday life, in which music in its fleeting, non tangible form becomes something more concrete. It's an almost impressionistic style, one in which slight traces are the very heart of the sound. And here it works better than ever before to create a blueprint for a new music, neither abstract nor heavy handed, neither ambient or overbearing. TO ROCOCO ROT's music is gentle, dreamlike, graceful, utterly engaging and endlessly imaginative, and after six years influencing and inspiring the likes of Leftfield and Bjork it is ready to penetrate a world as widescreen as its intentions.