#444 The Bloody Beetroots - Romborama

Years ago I briefly dated a girl who was way into these guys. I happened upon some of their stuff on my computer and figured maybe this was the answer to my Feed Me withdrawls. At very least, it might make for good work music.

This is big beat, housey techno, with a touch of a rockist twist and a dash of noise/punk/ dan deacon technicolor obnoxiousness thrown in, staying just this side of Skrillex. Like Skrillex (whose album I didn't much like), The Beetroots' Bob Rifo throws annoying noises around willy nilly, seemingly as a substitute for creativity, and certainly isn't afraid to beat a given hook halfway to death and back.

But there's something else here, an actual sense for human feelings and desires, that saves the album. There's a bizarre sense of humor at the core, a willingness to legitimately try new things, and believe it or not a strange sense of vulnerability, especially in the surprisingly affecting last act. There things wind down a bit; we have the interstellar buzz of Warp 7.7, Moby-via-Aphex swooning of Mother and the singularly strange I Love the Bloody Beetroots. That penultimate track sounds, on the surface, like a self-aggrandizing anthem of self-congratulation, as a parade of distorted voices warble the name of the track. But the result is somehow more, it's bizarrely humorous, maybe even self-effacing.

In theory, the man/woman/men/women behind an album don't matter. It's about the music, not the scene, not the mode of production, not the cache. But it does matter, dammit. The best music is personal on one level or another, just as anything created by a single artist can't help but be. And if the art in question projects the idea that its creator is an asshole, I'm not rooting for it, I can't enjoy it.

Fact is, I get the impression, solely from his music, that Skrillex is a tool (and I fully concede I might be wrong. Not actually hating on the guy as a guy, but he does kind of make tooly music). This album somehow dodges that bullet. Rifo makes annoying clubby, maximalist techno, but there's a sense that he's more frustrated than furious, more interested in making you like him than making you buy his record. Why does it matter? Because music is a conversation with the listener, and I don't like having conversations with people who talk like assholes. Maybe I see a bit of my own misunderstood self in The Bloody Beetroots. Maybe I better end this thing while I'm ahead 3.5/5

You might like this if: you like big beats, rockist influences, and are willing to give love a chance