Review: Room Control - Past The Breakers EP

It's funny how this reviewing lark works - it's like Wikipedia surfing: One thing leads to another. Last week I reviewed the ace new EP from Pachyderm and off the back of that their label mates Room Control got in touch and asked if I would be interested in their new EP, 'Past The Breakers'. I listened and I replied...yes, I most certainly would. Room Control are Byron on synths, effects and samplers, Richard Bunze on bass and effects, and Dan Stefik on drums and percussion. Like much of the music I really, really dig, the EP defies categorization mixing as it does krautrock with post rock built on both guitars and electronica. As with Pachyderm, 'Past The Breakers' is released by Brothers And Sisters Records who are proving to be a label to watch closely in the future.....and another Canadian band to boot!

'Of The Clouds' opens this 5 track EP. An intriguing mix of retro sounding keyboards with a distinct post rock structure...it's a combination I've certainly not heard before. It's the bass that grabs the attention though..insistent and pulsing and swathed in reverb. The kosmische/prog synths are straight from the seventies but beneath them are little flashes of electronica that give it a spacey, contemporary edge. 'Breaker I: John B Portuguese Man Rap' is the first of two vignettes ('Breaker I' and 'Breaker II') that are short in length, both being around the one minute mark, that are aimed to give the EP a narrative. 'Breaker I....' is a garbled sounding rap by John B over some more vintage, but more discordant, electronica and drone and has a slightly sinister, schizophrenic feel about it. 'Down The Rabbit Hole' is a majestic track - another huge bassline and motorik drums accompany some more of the now familiar retro keyboards...but about halfway through it changes to become a driving krautrock belter, with the bass taking more of a front seat to the electronica....great stuff. The second 'Breaker' vignette - 'Breaker II: Sabsab' is the sound of one of the band's jam session recorded on a phone,some crowd noises added and then everything is manipulated and the result is the sound of a hellish rave in a cow field. The EP is brought to a close with 'Glass House' which is another Tangerine Dream meets Explosions In The Sky kraut/postrock work out, yet again the bass/guitar and synths work well in combination, driving the track forward. It creates the same atmosphere as the best kosmische but with the added power of guitars...it's a truly great combination and shows a startling imaginative force at work.

'Past The Breakers' impressed me mightily....the music is fantastic, but what grabbed me the most was the creativity behind it, both in the making and the producing. The seamless way in which they have taken aspects from seemingly disparate genres and melded them to produce something this good is remarkable....one gets the feeling that in lesser hands the same process could end in the sonic equivalent of blancmange. In all..a fantastic EP. It is available as a download and a CD from the Brothers and Sisters Bandcamp page here.