Artist: VON SPAR, Title: FOREIGNER, Label: ITALIC, Format: CD/LP Album, Release date: 24 MAY 2010, Distribution: KOMPAKT & ROUGH TRADE, Barcode CD: 880319461729, Barcode LP: 880319467110, Labelcode: LC 00728, P&C 2010: ITALIC
VON SPAR is an artist collective from Germany consisting of Sebastian Blume, Jan Philipp Janzen, Phillip Tielsch and Christopher Marquez.
On their third album, VON SPAR have once again put themselves to the task of juxtaposing seemingly disparate musical spheres. The spectrum ranges from electrified pop and krautrock elements to fusion experiments to clubby electro tracks. Based in Cologne and Berlin, the four musicians celebrate an elaborately constructed disorder. Like their previous releases, it defies categorization.
The quartet left the planet entirely for the duration of the album production in Cologne in late 2009, smoldering with a psychedelic heat before combusting into light-flooded cosmic haze - full of warm bass and rolling rhythms. All around, cosmic melodies shimmer clearly, aimed straight into the future. And even when the percussive patterns spread earthy rhythms, there is still a synthetic sound buzzing around somewhere, telling of the vastness of the universe.
The multi-layered vocal-parts which appear in well-dosed intervals work as anchors on this colored trip: The single trOOps - feat. remixes by Prince Language (The No Comprendo, DFA, Editions Discos) & Rebolledo (Cómeme) - combines almost R&B-ish vocals with a krauty disco groove. This contrasts with the calmness of the nautically inspired album opener Scotch & Chablis or cosmic space-mantra odes like Lambda.
Foreigner is a science-fiction album chock full of trippy pop, which tumbles through unexplored terrain without forgetting to look in the rearview mirror and allowing the listeners enough room to use their own imagination.
Von Spar - trOOps (Original Version) by italic
Tracklisting: 1. Scotch & Chablis (5:29), 2. You Can Shake Down On My Settee Tonight (5:48), 3. trOOps (5:11), 4. I Can’t Stand The Grain (6:26), 5. Collecting Natural Antimatter (5:09) 6. HyBoLT (5:23), 7. Lambda (4:53), 8. Daddy Longlegs (6:56)
Links: Website, Biography, MySpace, Facebook, Discogs
Download: Von Spar Presskit (incl. hi-res artist pics, press release, cover artwork, zip file)
Credits: All songs written, performed & arranged by VON SPAR - except You Can Shake Down On My Settee Tonight: Music by VON SPAR & Mario Katz, bass by Mario Katz, violin by Radek Stawarz - except trOOps: Additional vocals performed by Johannes Stankowski & Teddy Briggs - except Lambda: Lyrics by Michael Heydebreck & Jens-Uwe Beyer, vocals & guitar performed by Popnoname. All songs produced & mixed by VON SPAR & Bertil Mark - except Collecting Natural Antimatter: Produced by VON SPAR, mixed by VON SPAR & Volker Pannes. Illustration by Frieda Luczak. Published by ITALIC Music Publishing & Hanseatic.
The single trOOps is out on 10th May incl. RMXS by Prince Language (The No Comprendo, DFA, Editions Disco) & Rebolledo (Cómeme) on 12″ Vinyl & Download. The album Foreigner is out on 24th May on CD, LP & Download.
