Naarm based music-duo and art-project Roles are finally releasing their debut album ‘There’s A Space’ on Sept 2nd; celebrating the event on Sept 9th with an LP launch at their favourite venue, Café Gummo. Joining them on the night are Party Pest & Sudden Debt.
Roles consists of Louise Love and Luis Gutierrez. Perhaps more over-the-hill than up-and-coming, the pair manage to keep things fresh with a beginners mind and the chill of obscurity.
Describing their music as post-punk and post-pop, the duo’s sound is built around a spray of synths, drum machine and fuzzy guitar; all lit by stirring vocals.
Roles make lyrics using interviews, lectures and other recordings. The audio is transcribed and made into lyrics using a process of collage. Songs are fleshed-out with minimal selection of digital and analogue instruments.
‘There’s A Space’ harnesses recordings of late American psychedelic & new-age pioneer Dick Albert (AKA Ram Dass). Even without a connection to subject, the listener is taken on a trip through the art of words, minimal moods, punchy rhythms and heartfelt exhaustion.
This event has been a long-time coming, the album was originally set for release in late 2020, but life had other plans. With a sequence of global events and personal upheavals, delays occurred.
Roles are looking forward to looking back on this album, as they make way for their second release; an album exploration of death releasing in 2023.
