Rothko - Storm Cycle 10"
(K-raa-K3)
When I first heard of Rothko and that they only consisted of three bass players, I immediately assumed the worst. I imagined Dianogah without the drums and with even more low-end melodies fumbling around, mucking up the songs. However, from my first listen of their Truth Burns EP, I was amazed by the sounds Rothko were able to extract from their basses and how the basses were able to blend and harmonize, creating something more similar to Labradford than Dianogah.
Rothko's Storm Cycle 10" shows the band continuing to create unworldly layers of ambient textures and atmospheric drones using only bass guitars and various pedals and other sound manipulators. While two bass guitars envelope you with their tonal collage, another bass glides into the song, introducing a simple melodic phrase that solidifies itself in your mind just before it fades out and leaves you, once again, engulfed in low-end soundscapes. Throughout each song, multiple bass melodies are introduced into
the song, flowing seamlessly from one to another, often a second bass guitar will blend into the first, adding a second layer of harmony to the existing melody.
Mark Rothko (the painter from which the band's name was taken) was famous for using the size and placement of paintings to make the onlooker feel as if he or she were actually inside or part of the artwork, using large patches of simple hues of color that blend and bleed at the borders. With the Storm Cycle 10", Rothko are able to create the same illusion with their music using only the simple tones created by standard bass guitars.
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