Roland Throop by Julia Bloop

CASSETTES AVAILABLE FROM CRASH SYMBOLS:
crashsymbols.bandcamp.com/album/roland-throop

'Roland Throop' is the second cassette from Brooklyn-based Julia Bloop, following a debut on Rotifer Cassettes -- the last tape they launched before a year-long hiatus. Named for a pair of low-frequency, underwater noises recorded in the mid-90s, the project relies on meticulously arranged loops and effects. The material here was gathered haphazardly though, while living out a dreary sublet overlooking a barren concrete courtyard, "I drank wine, watched movies, listened to the radio, and was never quite sure what sounds I’d find on my 4-track when I woke up the next morning." Though both albums are more than adequate just as reveries, despite its more dreamlike passages 'Roland Throop' has a distinct emotional charge throughout. That atmosphere comes across perfectly in the opener "I Gotta Get Outta This Place," a strain of melancholia beautifully drawn out and recast elsewhere into shades of loneliness, as with "Too Many Ghosts," or ambling epiphanies like "That Dracula" and "Tenaya."

Featured in Tabs Out Podcast's Top 200 Tapes of 2017

"A fever dream of disparate yet well-placed samples, the music finds Julia Bloop peering over their shoulders, nodding back to the sonic collagists of decades past. As a matter of fact, the hazy, blissed-out tone of the cassette is eerily reminiscent of some of the finer moments from the Little Darla Has a Treat for You compilations, which were issued quarterly by the Darla Records label in the late '90s and featured somnambulant electronic music by the likes of Technicolor, Aarktica, Flowchart and Sweet Trip . . . As groovy as it is ethereal, Roland Throop offers a startlingly cohesive smorgasbord of Julia Bloop's skilful stitching; it's a coat of many colours that's a pleasure to behold." -Exclaim!

"Bloop creates a dreamlike atmosphere by cleverly juggling relaxed percussive loops, spoken word samples and delicate melodies, resulting in a calm, melodic microcosm that sounds like a clever quote of late 90’s Ninja Tune and their downtempo classics." -Weed Temple

"...underwater groove tape." -Chris Kissel, DubLab

"...spirit of playful discovery and happy accidents." -Cassette Gods

"Listening to these tracks is like stepping into a dream in progress, with all the confusing blurs and vivid details racing past you in their cyclical push for attention. Despite its noisy and clattering façade, the album as a whole feels oddly cohesive, a waking reverie that offers few answers but provides a necessary framework from which to examine the intricacies of her distinct and multilayered approach to the creation of this kind of abstract musical collage." -Nooga.com

"...an engaging exercise in sample and mood." -A Closer Listen

"...absolutely delightful. As a record, it’s cohesive despite the differing tracks – you will hear simple, dreamy field recordings, but also gentle trip-hop grooves. The whole tape carries a specific atmosphere of melancholy and closeness, of reverie and solitude." -Can You Ear It?

"...a trip with exotic experimental beats." -Pretty Odd Authority

"The other side of the street... looking over and listening with ears tuned to as much as I can hear. Muddy beats from buildings beaten and weathered in time's passage. Crossing the street changes what is heard. Stay put listen and closely, the sounds perfectly deflect and disintegrate from this vantage point. Any closer and a new reality sets in, farther and all is lost in surrounding commotion." -Lost In A Sea of Sound

mysterious sounds from the bottom of the ocean