I’m just going to say it — I’m feeling hooped out! The US Women’s National Team is about to go on one of the most lopsided Olympic hoops runs ever. It’s going to be fucking sick. So get ready for me to pepper my review of our Coolest Album of The Week, Robber Robber’s Wild Guess, with a little bit of a basketball bullshit.
But just like in the Olympics, we don’t celebrate just one winner here. We have other finalists, too. Take, for example, some strange but warm pop-rock from Nightshift with Homosapien. Somehow similar but opposite is Jenova 7’s Lost Sci-Fi Movie Themes, which is basically instrumental sci-fi hip hop theme songs. If that sounds awesome to you, and it is, listen to it. The runner up is State Faults with their double album Children of the Moon. I am a firm believer that an album shouldn’t be longer than 40 minutes, and I’m recommending a double album. The closer is one of the best of the year.
Then again, all of these albums are some of the best of the year or they wouldn’t be on…
The Coolest Stuff of The Week | July 31st
EXCRUCIS – There are Collectivities that Devour Souls
Genres: Post-hardcore, punk, screamo
Nightshift – Homosapien *
Genres: Experimental, rock-pop, avant garde
Henrique Vaz – De Silenti Natura
Genres: Experimental, electroacoustic, hypnotic
Pushbike – Runtime 25.04
Genres: Rock, emo, indie rock
Julia-Sophie – forgive too slow
Genres: Experimental, indie pop, synth pop
Sad Park – don’t wait for me
Genres: Punk, alternative, emo
Jenova 7 – Lost Sci-Fi Movie Themes *
Genres: Hip hop, beats, electronic
PHIZ – HEAVEN’S GATE
Genres: Hardcore punk, punk, psychedelic
Jon Rose – Aeolian Tendency
Genres: Drone, experimental, field recordings
Respire – Hiraeth
Genres: Post-metal, post-rock, screamo
Ben Seretan – Allora
Genres: Rock, indie rock, alternative
State Faults – Children of the Moon *
Genres: Indie rock, alternative, screamo
Soft Boiled – Slice of Life
Genres: Indie rock, alternative, rock
Sproloquio – Canzoni oneste, quasi fossero un’ammissione di colpa
Genres: Post-hardcore, punk, hardcore punk
EXO – DEMO
Genres: Hardcore punk, punk, alternative
Robber Robber – Wild Guess
Genres: Post-punk, krautrock, post-rock
A frantic tidal wave of restless art-rock sweeps through Wild Guess, and before you know it, the album is halfway over and then done. I have no idea how many times I’ve listened to this strange, noisy work of art since it dropped. The number is somewhere in the dozens, and it all went by in a flash, almost impossible to catch all that’s going on after even several listens.
Robber Robber has a knack for writing songs that are simultaneously extremely breezy and extremely busy, making for a listen that distorts time itself.
And although I’m going to attribute this time distortion to the band’s restlessness and sense of pace, there’s nothing unfocused about Wild Guess. The decisions and musicianship and arrangements are all incredibly precise, which only makes the impact of their restlessness go even further. Of course, this is a lot of vague generalities that I’m realizing lack the very preciseness I’m praising Robber Robber for, so let me explain what the hell I’m talking about.
Central to everything is change — don’t get used to one specific melody, jam or groove because it’s about to change.
That change might be big or it might be small, but that’s the genius of Robber Robber. They realize subtle shifts are just as important as big ones. Like a veteran point guard breaking down a defense with a combination of dribble moves, fakes, subtle glances and timing, they keep us listeners on our toes, off-balance and never knowing exactly what to expect next. We just know, yeah, we’re probably going to get scored on.
Bursts of sound give way to minimalism with Nina Cates’ paradoxically dreamlike yet steadfast vocals offset by the almost glitchy drumming of Zack James. Vocals and drums are typically the two most important aspects of most rock bands, so the fact that Cates and James co-produced Wild Guess (with James co-mixing it with Benny Yurco) could have lead to some self-indulgent fuckery. Instead, the exact opposite occurs — absolute restraint.
Yes, in the most stripped down moments, vocals and drums are most heavily featured, but I say this with an asterisk. The vocals are treated almost like any other instrument here, both with where they sit in the mix and with Cates’ style of singing. That’s not to say it’s amelodic or lacks hooks, but the vocal lines almost take the form of guitar riffs at times, taking unexpected shapes and even sometimes sitting in pockets you wouldn’t expect.
This isn’t a referendum on any other band, but it’s refreshing to hear something so fundamental to these songs be recontextualized to such an egalitarian role, especially when Cates was a principle songwriter and producer.
These vocals, in their most minimal state, will typically be paired with bass or guitar, trading off between the two as to not clutter the tracks too much. On most tracks, Carney Hemler handles bass and Will Krulak and Cates handle guitar. The bass lurks and bounces, helping to carry each track along. The guitars are downright malicious most of the time, coming in blasts and waves.
All this minimalism serves to make the loudest moments feel even bigger and more chaotic.
It almost feels like a nastier onslaught of noise for the fact that Robber Robber is constantly robbing us of moments of absolute noise with their quieter passages of drum, bass and vocals. It feels weirder to have the guitar slash forth against drums on its own before everything crashes in together. It all feels more because of the less.
Constantly shifting. Always changing. Persistently moving. To bring back the basketball metaphor, this is the controlled chaos of peak-Golden State Warriors motion offense onslaughting their opponents with precise spacing, movement and attack. And like that all time great team, what can I say except Robber Robber is playing the game the right way with a pretty dope lineup.
Now, who is Steph Curry? Who is Draymond Green? Who is Klay Thompson? Who is Kevin Durant? You can take a Wild Guess, but I’m going to leave that to the band to fight amongst themselves. But obviously, whoever fights most toxically about it is Dray.
