by request
Artist Biography by Sean Cooper
Thrill Jockey instrumental duo Rome
are, like many of the acts on the Chicago-based independent label,
generally categorized as loose adherents of "post-rock," a period-genre
arising in the mid-'90s to refer to rock-based bands utilizing the
instruments and structures of music in a non-traditionalist or otherwise
heavily mutated fashion. Unlike other Thrill Jockey artists such as Tortoise and Trans-Am, however, Rome
draw less obviously from the past, using instruments closely associated
with dub (melodica, studio effects), ambient (synthesizers, found
sounds), industrial (machine beats, abrasive sounds), and space music
(soundtrack-y atmospherics), but fashioning from them a sound which
clearly lies beyond the boundaries of each. Perhaps best described as
simply "experimental," Rome formed in the early '90s as the trio of Rik Shaw (bass), Le Deuce (electronics), and Elliot Dicks
(drums). Based in Chicago, their Thrill Jockey debut was a soupy
collage of echoing drums, looping electronics, and deep, droning bass,
with an overwhelmingly live feel (the band later divulged that much of
the album was the product of studio jamming and
leave-the-tape-running-styled improvisation). Benefiting from an early
association with labelmates Tortoise as representing a new direction for American rock, Rome
toured the U.S. and U.K. with the group (even before the album had been
released), also appearing on the German Mille Plateaux label's tribute
compilation to French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, In Memoriam. Although drummer Dicks left the group soon after the first album was released, Shaw and Deuce
wasted no time with new material, releasing the "Beware Soul Snatchers"
single within weeks of its appearance. An even denser slab of inboard
studio trickery, "Soul Snatchers" was the clearest example to date of
the group's evolving sound, though further recordings failed to
materialize.
Tracklist
| 1 | Leaving Perdition | 8:10 |
| 2 | Intermodal | 3:39 |
| 3 | Lunar White | 3:25 |
| 4 | She's A Black Belt | 3:14 |
| 5 | Rohm | 1:09 |
| 6 | Radiolucence (Version) | 5:31 |
| 7 | Deepest Laws | 14:14 |
