Rolo Tomassi - Cosmology

Thu 8th Jul, 2010 in Music Reviews

There is always an exciting sense of curiosity when two artists from completely different worlds work together, to see what sort of magic will hopefully ensue. The teaming of mathcore band Rolo Tomassi and dance producer Diplo is one of these curious pairings, however magic may be a slight overstatement.

Cosmology is the second full length release from the English five piece, the follow up to 2008’s Hysterics and the inclusion of Diplo has only had a minimal effect on the band’s sound. Songs are noticeably better as far as structure goes, and slightly more adventurous than their predecessors, but contain no real surprises, as one may expect when hiring such an odd choice of producer.

The most evident feature of this release is the sense of maturity in the song writing, especially during the latter half of the record. Things pick up where the last album left off with Katzenklaver, which consists of a creepy synth line that continues to play throughout second track Agamemnon, an onslaught of broken timed guitars and the brutal growl of front woman, Eva Spence.

As the record progresses the one minute songs turn into five and seven minute songs and the colourful dynamics take control. Unromance begins as one of the most chaotic songs on the album but eventually turns into a sweetly delivered chant, backed by rolling drums and clean strummed guitars. An album highlight is French Motel, which manages to encompass elements from all of the tracks in under three minutes, heavy, soft, mathematical, Rolo Tomassi can be summed up with this one song.

The final songs dabble with electronic atmospherics and Spence’s clean vocal, which rivals her growl, before the record ends with the title track, the most diverse moment in the entire Rolo Tomassi catalogue. Airy, synth laden and backed with programmed drums Diplo’s influence finally shines through setting a new standard that will hopefully continue on to the next release.

This record is certainly a step forward for the band, and is much more planned and relaxed than their debut, but perhaps on the next one, they will let the oddly chosen producer shine through a little more.