- There is something a bit too pat about the synth surrealism of acts like Roland Sebastian Faber. The imagery is already ingrained at the outset: Pulsating synths conjuring up Turkish chase scenes, melted guitar riffs reminding us of wind-swept car rides down an imagined freeway. It's the aural equivalent of Emil Schult's artwork here: Two hands drop into an Escher illustration shorn of optical illusion, only to lightly fade into the landscape. It's weird. But, you know, honestly not that weird at all.
Artists like Faber need to work doubly hard to strip their work of easy unease. And, on Gropiusstadt EP, he doesn't do enough to stand out. The three tracks that comprise his hardly uncover new avenues for the mysterious, billowing slightly synth pop genre, but they're nonetheless reasonably attractive variations thereof. "Loeffelkinder"'s sturdy guitar marks it out as the driving epic of the trio even before a wordless female voice screams her way into the picture. The title track, meanwhile, needs its beat to keep it from floating away into space. The guitar here is used to ecstatic effect, soloing as if auditioning for the Balearics at any given opportunity. "Morgengrau" finishes things off properly with what sounds like live drumming and a murky synth and guitar combination that doesn't ever properly take off like its two predecessors. Beautiful artwork, average tunes.
Tracklist A Loeffelkinder
B1 Gropiusstadt
B2 Morgengrau