- Classic synth sounds that show off the ecstasy of looping.
- When I was first getting to know Tony Rolando, we'd have long conversations about looping. I worked for him at Make Noise during its early years, helping to build synthesizer modules that he'd designed. On breaks, we'd have discussions about tape music and samplers, repetition and loop pedals, all the ways to freeze and compose with bits of sound. One of the modules we were rolling out was the Phonogene, a digital tape machine named for the instrument used by musique concrète composer Pierre Schaeffer. The module was a callback to Rolando's early years. As a curious, musically-inclined Midwestern kid in the '90s, he first used a Superba reel-to-reel found at a thrift store to experiment with tape loops. Now, ten years after creating the Phonogene, Rolando's new record, Breakin' Is A Memory, finds him exploring those same techniques with a new palette. At its core, this is a record about loops, an examination of the ways in which melodies and memories can bend and warp while connecting back to their origins.
Rolando designed the Phonogene (now updated as the Morphagene, to streamline the composition process he used with the Superba. Rather than painstakingly splicing bits of magnetic tape with a utility knife, you could mimic that process with voltage, creating tiny repeating moments out of any audio fed into the synthesizer module. More than just emulating the capabilities of his childhood tape machine, however, the Phonogene also allowed for real-time trimming of audio. Anything the Phonogene played back could be shortened, lengthened or otherwise knocked off its axis, changing the tempo or rhythmic structure of the loop.
One of his early tape compositions, "I'd Like To Make Communication W/ U," was a tangle of ] samples bumping up against each other. Melodies momentarily repeated before breaking apart into different time signatures or collapsing into a locked-groove drone. On Breakin' Is A Memory, Rolando takes those ideas of composing with tape—refined over the course of his life through experimentation and design—and applies them to sequencers. Cascading arpeggios nudge each other in and out of sync, tempos slump before flickering back to life and notes warble slightly out of pitch.
That's not to say the LP's sound is rooted in nostalgia. It shares a heritage with synth music of the '70s and '80s but doesn't come off as an attempt to recreate those eras. Suzanne Ciani's influence is obvious in the swirling stereo panning of the title track, and long waves of Vangelis-like accent notes wash over the bubbly current of "In A Forest Of Phenomena." But unlike a lot of those old synth records, Rolando emphasizes melody and texture over metronomic precision and urgency. Through playful, ever-changing arrangements, Breakin' Is A Memory achieves a fragmented pop sensibility. It's the catchiest synthesizer record I've heard in some time, and some of these tunes are absolute earworms.
The record is stitched together seamlessly, each track flowing directly into the next. As Breakin' Is A Memory reaches its conclusion, closer "Broadcastin' Live From The Funhouse (Strega Version)" crumbles into fluttering static. Its underlying sequence disintegrates, sounding like an old reel-to-reel losing tape at the end of playback. If you immediately restart the LP, you hear the opening drone of "Running Toward An Edge" fade in, sputter out and kick itself into an escalating arpeggio. It's as if that same old tape machine's motor caught up with itself.
The beautiful dichotomy of a loop is that its endpoints don't actually exist. Melodies resolve, memories reappear and old ideas stay with you, informing each new one. Tony Rolando first learned how to make music on an old tape machine. Now he designs musical instruments, but still approaches composition as if he's splicing together tape. Everything comes back around, adding new depth to its character with each revolution.
Tracklist01. Running Toward An Edge
02. Moonlit Through A Veil Of Smoke
03. Breakin' Is A Memory
04. In A Forest Of Phenomena
05. Monolithic Memories Crumbling
06. Broadcastin' Live From The Funhouse