Like a rocket launching to space, brand-new German label Block Opera hits us with a kick-off compilation titled ‘Cosmic Void’. Seemingly inspired by the Voyager spacecraft’s iconic golden records, a send-off to would-be extra-terrestrials, Cosmic Void collects tracks from artists from around Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, to be pulled from the march of time and held in posterity for some unknown future. The compilation releases the 5th of July, but today we get a sneak peak at one of the tracks, Robot Orchestra’s ‘Strange Beauty’.
Germany’s thriving beat scene can trace its roots back to LA in a myriad of ways, but the track from Cologne producer Robot Orchestra, ‘Strange Beauty’, seems almost directly connected to the sound that was defined by the recently-defunct institution Low End Theory. Artists such as Lorn and Dorian Concept spring to mind, the latter of whom is also Austrian himself. The beats have a west coast swagger, the lead synth is pure retro-space-future, and the harmonies are sidechained to the moon and back for a lurching composition that certainly lives up to the Robot Orchestra moniker. If, like Sun Ra, space is your place, give a listen to Strange Beauty above, and keep an eye out for the full compilation from Block Opera, dropping digitally and on double-LP vinyl, 5 July 2019.
— review by @autonomy
Hear more from Robot Orchestra
Soundcloud
Spotify
Bandcamp