R.O.C – Bile And Celestial Beauty

Rocmusic

I was more than a little excited to discover R.O.C were returning after quite some time away and this album does not disappoint. Somehow, ROC manage to exist outside of the music industry and any trends and vagaries that may afflict it. Although it has been twelve years since their last LP, when the music starts it could have been yesterday that the previous albums were released.

Unlike most bands, where you can plot the graph of how their career is progressing, there is no question of progress with R.O.C. They exist, and they produce an album every now and again that sounds like them and them alone. The tracks seem to appear fully formed from out of the speakers and you know immediately that it couldn’t be anyone else. It is a little like walking behind somebody you know intimately but haven’t seen for fifteen years. You know it is them from the subtleties of body movement and other inexplicable feelings, and ROC tracks are like this.

Since 2006’s Night Fold Around Me, long time producer Danton Supple has moved from behind the desk to become the fourth member, which has injected some new impetus into the trio’s working methods. Like any band, the injection of new blood brings with it renewed vigour; well, maybe vigour isn’t the right word — but it certainly brings something. Opportunities to look at the working methods with fresh eyes perhaps. Like I said though, once the music starts, it couldn’t be anybody else. There is something about the lazy, bass-heavy beat and squeaky saxophone that insinuates into your ear that R.O.C are back.

Fred Browning‘s splenetic vocals, all crashing and distorted on opener “Think Again” have not really changed. “I think I’d better think this through again”, he sears, as backwards guitar vibrates in the air above them, and it just feels as though they have never been away. The squirming electronics on “Journey” are a little more sinister, but Karen Sheridan‘s voice is as lovely as ever, the eternal yang to Fred’s yin which makes each other’s journey that little bit more human. Her delivery is cool, but the subject matter is tough and the track is kind of dark — but there is a sultry sort of feel that along with the orchestral flourishes bring a visual quality to the soundscape.

However, as we would expect, it is not all about the darkness and the layered beats on this album. “Give It All Up” has a relaxed and questioning vibe to it, Karen’s vocals once again honey in your ears. Although the slow piano and the use of space is lovely, the jet noises lurking in the background prevent it from being too relaxing; there is just enough of an edge to ensure you pay attention, and it feels as though there is the strangest homage to the Beach Boys as the two voices entwine towards the end of the track.

You do sign up for some of Fred’s tall tales when you listen to an R.O.C album and “Mexicans” is just one of those, the American-type rhythm trying to ease the inscrutability of the lyrics concerning “messing in Texas with a gang of Mexicans”. When you catch the odd lyric or line from Fred’s songs, it makes you wonder what on Earth he has been up to and how he manages to drift into these scrapes. The more the album progresses, the more that each rhythmic or melodic device that is used sounds as though it was invented by them for this exact purpose; it might be the romantic and meditative electronic soundscape of “Come Back Jonee” or the slow club beat and funky guitar licks of “Chateau”. In fact, “Chateau” is kind of unexpected and they manage to conjoin a loose groove with the repeated line “I will kill you before you kill me”, bringing the funk and then smashing you in the face with it.

One of the things that is different on this album compared to the others is their willingness to have both Fred and Karen singing together — or should I say vocalising, in the case of Fred. It is one of those things that, after hearing it here, you wonder why they never really took the opportunity before — but maybe that is what will be the jumping off point for the next album (he said, hopefully). Under the rhythm of windscreen wipers and small-screen orchestral flourishes, the voices come together beautifully on penultimate track “Divorce“. Fred’s rap is urgent, and the electronics are lovely and lazy, but it is all washed away with the druggy beats and sampled vocals. The juxtaposition between the two vocal styles is never better than here, and you can sense the fingerprints of all four members bringing their disparate elements to the sound and working their alchemy. This track drifts into the final “Silver Highway” which, with Karen’s rather forlorn vocal, feels as though the band weren’t quite ready to end it here.

I can only hope that this is the case and that there is more to come, and we don’t have to wait twelve years for it. Although it has been a while, this is such a welcome return and the quality of the tracks and obvious pleasure that has gone into making the album are so apparent that it is an absolutely essential purchase. Bile And Celestial Beauty is the perfect description of their sound, and it is time that you welcomed R.O.C into your life.

-Mr Olivetti-