Without knowing exactly what I mean, I’d say that ‘abc123’ is an album for headphones and art installations; it’s a Japan CD sticking in the machine and sounding great for it; an angular and insistent set of eight instrumentals on an album just shy of twenty minutes long.
Stefan Schneider of the Berlin trio has claimed that the impulse behind the songwriting was to construct pieces ‘in an alphabetical sense’ by arranging midi files on the computer in a graphical rather than musical way – that is to say, looking at the arrangements of each track on the screen, they were often laid out in the shape of a letter X or L for example.
The result is a winning jostling of sounds and rhythms: snare fills like soft pneumatic drills and computer generated cow bells like the sound of 80’s ping pong games burst in while synth pads wash up against the arrangement and recede into the fade outs. Arrhythmic sub-bass kicks along like someone flicking a microphone and it all holds together pretty well as a series of sonic experiments.
Emotionally the tracks hold us at arm’s length, however there is enough shine and swagger to create a crisp, spiky atmosphere. One thing To Rococo Rot have done really well is to judge the timing of each piece. Each track layers on instruments, plays around then strips itself down before it ever begins to meander or stagnate. It’s a small but important detail that the Rotters have got completely right.
So, ‘abc123’– a restless, pretentious, vibrant little set of sounds.