The only Rrose record I actually owned before this one was their version of James Tenney’s Having Never Written A Note For Percussion, in which they played a single note on a gong for 27 minutes — first quietly, then loudly, then quietly again. And then did it again on the B-side. It was an astonishingly controlled work, from a technical perspective, and a mind-alteringly hypnotic one.
That was, I think, atypical of their oeuvre. Their day job is as a techno producer, and formally speaking that’s mostly what they’re doing on Please Touch. But you can absolutely see the kinship with the James Tenney piece.
A sprinkling of beatless tracks is par for the course in the genre’s LP form, and they actually make up the majority here. However, these are no clichéd ambient fillers, but fully-formed works of swirling psychedelia or and ominous drone.
But it’s the rhythm-based tracks that dominate the album, at least for me. Rib Cage, Spore, Spines, and The Illuminating Glass are all monsters with throbbing basslines and skittering, pulsating rhythms, constantly warping and mutating. The most obvious reference point here has to be Plastikman, but the sounds here are fresher — and, whisper it, more playful.
This is intense stuff which demands to be played loud. And, yes, it too mind-alteringly hypnotic. So lie back, strap on your best headphones, and let this stunning album do its thing.
I bought this from the label’s bandcamp page.
dogrando writes about some records 