There has long been, and no doubt always will be, a strong debate over the merits of process based music. Should music stand and fall solely on the sounds that can be heard, or is a knowledge of the creative process allowable in order to make otherwise ‘difficult’s music more accessible? One way to completely avoid having your music sucked into the debate is to create process based music that is to the point and decidedly listenable. And so it is with To Rococo Rot’s latest EP, ABC One Two Three their tribute to the Helvetica font on its 50th anniversary.
Group member, Stefan Schneider, has stated that he set up fairly strict parameters for how they should approach the music making for this release. These involved abandoning most of the instruments the three band member normally play in the group and restricting themselves to a computer and a Yamaha VS330. To ‘compose’ the music, letters were drawn onto the midifile window, with the computer then triggering these notes on the keyboard, which is where the seeming randomness of much of the music originates. He has also said that others in the group didn’t necessarily like those parameters, but he pushed them and the results are presented here. The sounds are remarkably digital, without much in the way of DSP processing or a perceived need for ‘real’ instruments. Instead what we are presented with are a set of short, sharp ideas (the longest track, ‘Helvetica New’ clocks in at 3:15) which never outstay their welcome and each of which present a clear, self contained idea, explores it and then moves on. ‘IVX’ pleases with a pulsing electro groove. ‘Verschieden’ presents a lo-fi drone as the bed for which seemingly random sine notes and electronic tambourine hits can dance about in abstract fashion.
The work is reminiscent of mid 20th century serialism with expanded polyphony and a 90s IDM programming aesthetic. It’s not groundbreaking work but, as music about a font, is both conceptually evocative and listenable on its own terms.
Adrian Elmer
