SPILL NEW MUSIC: ROOSEVELT – “COLOURS”
City Slang Records
On August 19th Marius Lauber AKA Roosevelt releases his stunning, self-titled debut album via City Slang / Greco-Roman records.
To mark its launch Roosevelt unveiled a new video- which features two tracks from the album (“Colours” and “Moving On”) along with the album’s tracklist and artwork. This double-bill approach gives more insight into the album than the usual standard one song video format, but the intention was creative as much as it was practical.
With a surreal sensitivity akin to his previous videos, “Colours” stars Roosevelt alongside various characters in an abstract exploration of the five senses (touch, sight, smell, taste and hearing). The segue into “Moving On” then follows the protagonists’ walk from their dream-like state into an everyday street scene, where they find themselves lost in the sensory overload of real world modern life.
Written, recorded and produced by Lauber over a period of two years, Roosevelt the album is a pillow-soft hallucinatory dreamscape of nocturnal reveries and a lilting sense of melancholia, where sounds build and swell like waves. Roosevelt’s signature hazy sound which ascends ever skywards is still present and correct on the album – but this time it’s honed, crafted and less loop based. Roosevelt showcases Lauber as a fully developed recording artist, with an instinctive synthesis of different soundscapes. This is a record with a deep affinity to the dance music world unified with sophisticated, classic song structures.
The glistening and gently undulating disco of “Night Moves” features uplifting layers of delicately constructed guitars atop propulsive beats and expanding acid synths lines, whilst “Moving On” utilizes Balearicslo-mo percussive grooves to mesmerising effect. The Tangerine Dream-esque “Belong” is pure euphoria, “Heart” is a bright and breezy airborn anthem, and the stunning sunrise instrumental hypnosis of “Daytona” blends seamlessly into the sublime, cooly life-affirming ‘Fever’.
Influences span continents and decades – from a pinch of French electro pop, a smattering of LA yacht rock, the hypnotic repetition of German pioneers like Ash Ra Tempel/Manuel Göttschingand Neu!, to classic floor-friendly 80’s pop from Chic, Talk Talk and New Order. Nu school figureheads like Floating Points, Todd Terje and Metro Area are also partially audible – all weaved into his own unique sonic tapestry.
Roosevelt’s growth was catalyzed by an early DJ residency at Kompakt’s Total Confusion party alongside Superpitcher & Michael Mayer, with the label also releasing an early remix of his for COMA. These experiences helped Lauber realize how dance music connects to its audience in a different way to what he’d experienced from earlier days spent performing in bands. “What I really enjoyed about DJing was that you could see the results immediately – there was feedback and interaction from the crowd,” he explains. Check out the video for “Colours” below.
Tour Dates
Roosevelt
Roosevelt
(City Slang Records)
Release Date: August 19, 2016
Track List
1. Intro
2. Wait Up
3. Night Moves
4. Belong
5. Moving On
6. Heart
7. Colours
8. Sea
9. Daytona
10. Fever
11. Hold On
12. Close
Band Links
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: WIVES – SO REMOVED
SPILL NEW MUSIC: WHITE DENIM SIGN TO CITY SLANG RECORDS, ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM ‘PERFORMANCE’ OUT AUGUST 24TH AND HEADLINING FALL TOUR
