After 2022’s 2-LP Exploring the Boundaries of the Multiverse and last year’s collector’s 7″ on Robo Diddley and The Rockin’ Robot, Dutch duo D.V.R. (aka Dave von Raven) and R-JoHN (aka Arjan Spies) have returned to the semi-metal housing of Les Robots. Their brains are full of vintage soundtracks and the discographies of Joe Meek, The Ventures, and Jean Jacques Perrey, yet their output is completely original, on the cutting edge of crazy and genius.
Intermission | Optigan is a delightfully oddball instrumental set that leans into the wheezy, off-kilter magic of a battered Optigan, an electronic keyboard that was brought to market by toy maker Mattel in the early 70s (don’t worry, there are guitars too). The twelve new tunes—between An Alarming Start and The Last 3 Minutes Of Mars, a glowing series of escapist ideas passes by—are not really rock, surf, or exotica, nor gimmicky, cinematic, or clever, but actually it all applies. This is retro-futurist space age pop, library music kitsch, and sci-fi lounge drifting through a haze of tape wobble and analog quirks. Vintage kitsch meets cosmic cool.
Intermission | Optigan—recorded, mixed, and mastered by Arjan Spies—is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Topsy-Turvy Records.