Busting down the door
Elegant Dynamite
I was beginning to think that the younger generations out there making music had lost the creative edge that was so sharp in so many bands from my youth. Over the last what-seems-like-forever, every time I heard something new it sounded like it was drowning in a sea of mediocrity, and for a minute there I thought things had just changed and maybe mumble rap actually was the new Bad Brains. The first time I heard Robber Robber I realized that I had been mistaken. My faith in humanity was restored; it turns out that the kids are alright after all.
‘Loose parameters’ is how Robber Robber (Nina Cates, Zachary James, Will Krulak, Carney Hemler) describe their ambitious dynamo of a sonic art project. Fusing together avant-garde post punk and alt rock driven instrumentation, powered by compelling, sometimes hypnotic rhythms, they weave in and out of the lanes of what one might consider orthodox. Nina Cates’ vocal style ranges from alluring and ethereal to emphatic and assertive, often superimposed over wildly contrasting textures.
Their latest release, Dial Tone, off of their upcoming album is a live wire ripper of a song that comes straight at you and doesn’t hold back:
Wild Guess is set to be released on 7/26 (Album release show at Foam Brewers in Burlington), and is available for preorder on Bandcamp:
The previously released single, Sea or War is a psychedelic wormhole with a trance-inducing Jaki Liebezeit freight train of a drum track and those dulcet, cloudlike vocals I mentioned earlier:
Both their 2021 EP, Caldera and the 2019 Guy Ferrari are explosive devices with short fuses, the former leaning a touch more wily art rock and the latter a bit more kickass post-punk:
While one can divine an obvious progression to their work from a raw material to a slightly more polished form, they are by no means diluting their earlier brew, they’re evolving it into something headier. Less concerned with simplifying the vernacular, they’re expanding their vocabulary with authentic new expression.
The zeitgeist of art is a reverberation, continuously harmonizing with itself while at the same time sending out new vibrations forward into the ether, to be picked up by perceptive souls looking to build something previously untried. Robber Robber are resourcefully picking up what the universe is putting down and forging something fresh and radical. ⚡️