Description

A sonic triangle of electrified polyrhythms, spaced-out synth jams and off-kilter beats. Is how three-piece Strobes attempt to describe their occasionally indescribable debut album.

Formed of keyboardist Dan Nicholls (who has worked with Squarepusher and Matthew Herbert), drummer Joshua Blackmore (Troyka) and guitar and synth man Matt Calvert (Three Trapped Tigers, Heritage Orchestra) this band has created, via their debut release Brokespeak, an album that eschews genre and feels free from time-stamps. They are an intensely high-octane group that fire off frantic tempos and intricate complexities, yet they also retain an accessibility through fluid grooves and an engaging sense of melodic intuition.

The group interlock through Nicholls agile and sophisticated keyboard and bass synth work, Blackmores dizzying and immersive beats and Calverts riffs that shift from crunching noise to ecstatic grooves. The end result at times feels hectic and jittery, a scattered assault of slightly math-rock explorations, soaring post-rock guitars, grooving African rhythms and glitchy, pulverising electronics. Yet for all its seeming restlessness, it contains a feeling of fluidity and restraint that adds a further sense of depth and cohesion to the record its additional jazz tinge making the finished album sound like something you might find on Flying Lotus Brainfeeder label.