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REVIEWS
Roche Limit
Sometimes We Must Change Shape
Posted: Saturday, October 10, 2009
By: Charity VanDeberg
Concert Editor
By: Charity VanDeberg
Concert Editor
Strange and beautiful, Roche Limit's latest effort creates a new balance between art and experimentation.
Roche Limit's David Righton is an abstract artist as skilled at manipulating sound as Escher and Dali were with images. It is sometimes as if he does not labor over his music at all, but rather spawns it fully formed and ready to leave the nest. With his last album, White Light, Roche Limit drew from Beck, Nine Inch Nails, and Skinny Puppy to create a sound that incorporated the dark, the light, and the offbeat humor that added up to a genre-defying amalgamation of folk, experimental, and industrial. Simply stated, it was weird and wonderful. With Sometimes We Must Change Shape, all of these elements have returned (plus a touch of The Beatles and Pink Floyd), but as the title indicates, the end product has managed to change shape. Fortunately, the new shape is more like a newer, sexier Dr. Who than what cheese evolves into after a few months in the fridge.
It may take a few listens for this album to present its full beauty. On first impression, the songs sound like a mix-tape of Beck, Weezer, and Ween B-sides. They're cute, catchy, and weird, as expected, and the lyrics are often silly, but by the third listen, the intriguing play of Righton's mellow voice versus the inspired musical decisions seeps in. It's difficult to believe all these songs are written by the same man.
Many of the songs on Sometimes We Must Change Shape carry on where White Light left off. "My Friend Ship," the first song on the album, is a quick reminder of the Roche Limit style - it is quirky, cute, and begging for a late '70s-style animated video. But on this album, it's actually the darker, more musically driven pieces that steal the show. Gorgeously composed "I Am," "Since I," the haunting "Hey Man," and didgeridoo and whisper-driven "Night Walk" remind the listener that you never know what you can expect from the mind of Dave Righton.
In Escher's world, you can walk around a building and end up on the roof. In the world of Roche Limit, you can walk around the building and end up on another planet. Beautiful and full of surprising depth, it seems that time only makes this act better.
It may take a few listens for this album to present its full beauty. On first impression, the songs sound like a mix-tape of Beck, Weezer, and Ween B-sides. They're cute, catchy, and weird, as expected, and the lyrics are often silly, but by the third listen, the intriguing play of Righton's mellow voice versus the inspired musical decisions seeps in. It's difficult to believe all these songs are written by the same man.
Many of the songs on Sometimes We Must Change Shape carry on where White Light left off. "My Friend Ship," the first song on the album, is a quick reminder of the Roche Limit style - it is quirky, cute, and begging for a late '70s-style animated video. But on this album, it's actually the darker, more musically driven pieces that steal the show. Gorgeously composed "I Am," "Since I," the haunting "Hey Man," and didgeridoo and whisper-driven "Night Walk" remind the listener that you never know what you can expect from the mind of Dave Righton.
In Escher's world, you can walk around a building and end up on the roof. In the world of Roche Limit, you can walk around the building and end up on another planet. Beautiful and full of surprising depth, it seems that time only makes this act better.
