"she keeps me captive in a jar..."
Listening to the sublime pop psychedelia of "Starr" by Disturbios, the art rock project fronted by Matt and Rocio Verta-Ray, and I am in such a lovely headspace. The atmosphere, beautifully spartan on the surface but adorned with nuanced production touches deep in it's bones, has (for me) a 70's motif with a patina of garden rock, of chamber pop and even glam sparking around the edges and within the guitar down strikes. "Starr" was written by Matt and Rocio Verta-Ray along with Lily Wolf with other talented collaborators brought in to create the universe they wanted to create. Rocio's keys are pristinely Lennon-esque and Phil Gionfriddo's vocal aesthetic feels exquisitely earnest and cool and, for some odd and wonderful reason, I flashed on a crashing together of Stephen Malkmus (Pavement) and Harry Nilsson, two luminaries who you might now utter in the same breath. Maybe it is the vocal aesthetic that roller coasters in such artful ways, with rushes and steps back, that surprise. Totally having a crush on the Disturbios sound.
The minds behind legendary NY HED Studio (Elliott Smith & Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Suicide’s Alan Vega, The Ronettes’ Ronnie Spector, etc) revealed their new art rock project Disturbios, announcing a self-titled debut album (out May 21 via Midnight Cruiser Records).
So rad. So beautiful.
So rad. So beautiful.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.instagram.com/nyhed_studio/
The duo’s debut album is an electroshock fever dream — a marriage of blissed out, raunchy, and angular vintage rock & roll aesthetics with the pitiless tyranny of robotics gone wrong. Forged in the crucible of NY HED’s array of vintage analogue gear, the duo take a specialized approach to songwriting by experimenting on a vast array of sounds until the seed of an idea is planted. Rocio explains, “the writing process is enmeshed with the sound making, which is to say that recording, writing and performing are all on a continuum, all elements of the same whole. This extremely organic approach lets the important stuff kind of bubble up to the surface and announce to us what its shape should be.” Disturbios are hands-on to the last detail and conceive, perform, record and produce their music with Rocio creating their graphics and videos. From this method emerges a record filled with songs about longing, sorrow, love and revenge that are also somehow joyful and exhilarating as a backflip into an icy lake.
Rocio, who comes from the worlds of film and philosophy, cut her teeth playing Farfisa organ in Spanish surf bands, completing the buzzing short circuit between primordial ibero-arab melodies and twanging, sizzling Jimmy Smith riffs by-way-of the Ventures and Erik Satie. Matt has been slinging six string hash and riding the underground zeitgeist like an electrobilly monorail since the New York ‘80s - haunting, jagged riffs channeling directly from a deep vein of Sun Records and Link Wray. Disturbios takes the listener on a wild ride into the greasy depths of the human psyche that will leave her breathless, revved up and dying to blast the record out into the air again and again.
Disturbios, indie rock, psych rock, art rock, NY HED Studio, debut album, Matt Verta-Ray, Rocio Verta-Ray, Farfisa organ, Jagged, sideways pop, "Starr", deep pop sound, patina of glam
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