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CD
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KK 055CD
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Roman's third album can only be described as pop: rhythmic, melodic, intelligent and straight from the heart. That's not to say that the Cologne-based singer-songwriter, producer and filmmaker has lost any of his desire to experiment. Indeed, there has always been an avant-garde element in pop music, in transforming and condensing something intimate into a 3-minute nugget, both accessible and popular. It's this contrast that makes Roman's music seductive: his songs tell intimate stories and the multi-faceted compositions make this personal element audible. As always, he wrote and composed the whole thing himself, but was joined at the production stage this time round by Henning Schmitz and Bertil Mark. The former has already written musical history as a member of the band Kraftwerk. The latter is a drummer and producer for artists such as Von Spar, The Notwist and Die Fantastischen Vier. The recording process has also become more extravagant, Roman turning his back on bedroom production in favor of a full band set-up. It's precisely the dynamic spirit and playfulness of the band that injects his new album with an organic energy. The screaming, howling and whispering, the poetic anecdotes about everyday city life and night time walks along the harbor, fleeting neon moments in the darkness and euphoric club scenarios don't just fuel the lyrics but drive on the songs themselves. This is reflected, for example, in the song "R.I.P. Music," a real rave anthem. Roman doesn't disguise his voice throughout. He turns away from technique in favor of pure verbal expression and makes innocent dilettantism into a discipline. Musically, he wanders freely through various genres with eyes wide open: smooth ballads, banging beats, relaxing folk, D.I.Y. techno and clap-along hip-hop. It's a stylistic carousel that never stands still, constantly translating the keys of Roman's heart into rhythms, harmonies and melodies. The sound is more lavish than before, with synthesizers, laptop, a string quartet and guitar, only occasionally reverting to a reduced lo-fi structure. All the recordings have been put back through a sequencer, edited and added to on a laptop, giving the whole thing extra rawness. It's a working method that unites Roman's nerdy bedroom-production past with band collaboration and catapults this homemade aesthetic into a new, punchier context. Includes a bonus video for the track "Agog Grammer."
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LP
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KK 059LP
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LP version. Roman's third album can only be described as pop: rhythmic, melodic, intelligent and straight from the heart. That's not to say that the Cologne-based singer-songwriter, producer and filmmaker has lost any of his desire to experiment. Indeed, there has always been an avant-garde element in pop music, in transforming and condensing something intimate into a 3-minute nugget, both accessible and popular. It's this contrast that makes Roman's music seductive: his songs tell intimate stories and the multi-faceted compositions make this personal element audible. As always, he wrote and composed the whole thing himself, but was joined at the production stage this time round by Henning Schmitz and Bertil Mark. The former has already written musical history as a member of the band Kraftwerk. The latter is a drummer and producer for artists such as Von Spar, The Notwist and Die Fantastischen Vier. The recording process has also become more extravagant, Roman turning his back on bedroom production in favor of a full band set-up. It's precisely the dynamic spirit and playfulness of the band that injects his new album with an organic energy. The screaming, howling and whispering, the poetic anecdotes about everyday city life and night time walks along the harbor, fleeting neon moments in the darkness and euphoric club scenarios don't just fuel the lyrics but drive on the songs themselves. This is reflected, for example, in the song "R.I.P. Music," a real rave anthem. Roman doesn't disguise his voice throughout. He turns away from technique in favor of pure verbal expression and makes innocent dilettantism into a discipline. Musically, he wanders freely through various genres with eyes wide open: smooth ballads, banging beats, relaxing folk, D.I.Y. techno and clap-along hip-hop. It's a stylistic carousel that never stands still, constantly translating the keys of Roman's heart into rhythms, harmonies and melodies. The sound is more lavish than before, with synthesizers, laptop, a string quartet and guitar, only occasionally reverting to a reduced lo-fi structure. All the recordings have been put back through a sequencer, edited and added to on a laptop, giving the whole thing extra rawness. It's a working method that unites Roman's nerdy bedroom-production past with band collaboration and catapults this homemade aesthetic into a new, punchier context.
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12"
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KALKPETS 002EP
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This is Roman's second release on Kalk Pets, featuring remixes of tracks off his forthcoming album So Ghost?, which will be released on Karaoke Kalk. The artists include musician, remixer and DJ associate of the Frankfurt-based Playhouse label Losoul, giving us his very own interpretation of the track "True Love Owes Us Shit," Pascal Schäfer who is well known from his releases on Karaoke Kalk and Kalk Pets, giving us ample evidence how a straight bassdrum can stir up a typical surrounding, and finally, Torsten Mauss and Volker Bertelmann as Tonetraeger, who present their interpretation of "Unbroken Smile," turning up the vocals and reinventing the original track into a deep and floating mix. So ghostly.
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CD
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KK 033CD
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This is Cologne-based musician Roman's second album on Karaoke Kalk. Created out of pure, genuine pathos, So Ghost? is great pop meeting great gesture, with enthusiastically-raised arms waving from every corner. This is a highly demanding Janus-head-like album that changes its face with every track. Concerning his sounds and arrangements, Roman turns out to be a true daredevil: female choirs, over-amplified basses, staked-out keyboards and fan's noises from the background contrast with professional a cappella interludes. And overlaying everything is this voice somewhere between Aztec Camera, Style Council and Jacques Brel. An acoustic guitar (slightly out of tune) meets plastic synthies and a bolting drum computer. Skillfully-arranged beautiful string themes butt heads with a Gameboy's buzzing noises. Genuine club-stompers shake hands with samba-esque romances. And despite all its pomp and glory, So Ghost? still preserves the DIY charm of the bedroom production. Designed to elicit lighter-waving, teddy bear-throwing and misty eyes.
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CD
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KK 017CD
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"Sometimes it can be very difficult to say something about a work of music, even if you feel at home with it immediately. With Roman's debut 5 Minutes To Match, this is the case. Certainly, countless possible references spring to mind to describe what you hear. Vocals, arrangements, melodies and lyrics may remind one of the pop music of someone like Kid Montana or Aztec Camera. But what do you say when you find out that the person who made this music has just nothing in common anymore with the references we could possibly establish and that everyday history has placed him somewhere else completely? How do you proceed when it becomes clear that his music does not connect to those references from your own past and the seemingly detectable comparisons are nothing more than an awkward sheet anchor to put into words what you hear because we simply have forgotten how to see music as what it actually is, namely an accumulation of sounds brought to life by someone who tells a new and personal story through it? Roman's lyrics tell stories -- beautiful, short, long, strange, funny, and sometimes a little sad; and with his music he brings them to life for all of us; so much so that you sometimes even catch yourself singing along to the tracks. Rarely can this be said about music nowadays -- though at the same time it's one of the nicest qualities of pop music to obliterate for a brief moment the memory of your many, constantly repeated connections and references."
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LP
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KK 026LP
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