Feel It In Your Guts

Releases on limited 7" vinyl 25 Feb 2022 via First Taste Records.

“Heaven is about the cult-like mania of capitalism. I grew up listening to Dead Kennedys and always liked how they would write songs from the perspective of a character they didn’t necessarily agree with. There’s something fascinating about the stories that emerge and I wanted to get inside that extremely chaotic and self absorbed headspace. I loved the idea of singing as someone so narcissistic they find their newborn child beautiful just because they look alike.”

Robocobra Quartet has a rule: “No Guitars Allowed”. Their unique sound, concocted and self-produced in Belfast, Northern Ireland sees that ‘middle’ space filled by other instruments such as saxophones, samplers, keyboards and sound effects swirling around the melodic basslines and powerful drum rhythms which prop up the core of each of their songs. On top of this music sits a single vocal from behind the drum kit amid a fury of rhythm, sometimes marrying perfectly with the pulse of the drums and occasionally at complete odds with it.

For those who have yet to hear them, these new singles are just the beginning of the complex world of Robocobra Quartet - a band serious about their music but humorous in their approach, including members with no musical training alongside members with music conservatoire pedigree. The result is a collective of musicians inspired by Stravinsky and  Black Flag in equal measures. On stage, the band are protons and electrons circling Ryan; meticulous arrangements and on-the-spot improvisations hang on every word. These words and rhythms are what propel the music of Robocobra Quartet forward and concoct a sound that is groove-driven but cerebral too.

Heaven

Title track from upcoming EP out 1st July 2022. This song was inspired by some graffiti I saw while walking along the coast during lockdown in January 2021: 'no matter how dark it gets, hold on to the light'.

Hold On To The Light

Money Talks (Radio Edit)

Go fuck yourself on the roof with your cat

This is a new instrumental track I recorded to test my new studio equipment!

It's also part of my latest EP "Blue Sky, Sunshine" which is available through my bandcamp page: http://kanoi.bandcamp.com/album/blue-sky-sunshine-ep

On And On And On

So this started a lot like a few of the other songs Dan and I have done before. Woodscrew and Oldtime thinking come to mind of similar beasts, that began as improvised original tunes. Re-occuring themes with variations along a path across dynamic range and tempo. Building on it is a real pain in the butt, but Dan does a good job learning the changing steps for sure. Martin as well jumped on this beast with Sitar and Shruti box! That certainly extends the range around the gourd makes things a lot more fun. 

Hopefully the expert wordsmith Professor Greenwood will amend or rewrite this introduction when he has a spare moment with the Smith Corona   -Jeff.

Dan sez: Jeff should do less flattering, or I'll blather on even more. Anyhow, the lack of patterns is a refreshing challenge. Jeff's tunes like this strike me as an application of sorts of an American Primitive aesthetic to the banjo, at once a modern contemplation on a technique, a pure evocation of a feeling, and a look backward to a time before the rules of meter and composition and were codified as such. 

The feeling in this case is one of dread suitable of the big old not-a-bird whose name the tune bears. Jeff had already built an ominous percussion section when we started in on it, and Martin and I tried to emphasize that with drones and sound effects and a generally cinematic soundscape. I hear something that falls squarely in line with the developing KGB niche of retro-futuristic global old-time; Jeff's banjo is out front where it belongs the whole time, but there are plenty of other sounds packed in there for the auditory picking. Hopefully you'll be inspired to listen closely and repeatedly and will be rewarded accordingly. Thanks as always for swinging by.

Sounds: Gourd banjo; guitars played with fingers, picks, slides, ebows and digital effects; percussion; sitar; shruti box; ukulele; didgeridoo; kalimba; ngoni; jaw harps; and Korg Monotron and Monotron Delay.

Flight Of The Quetzalcoatlus (with Martin Kirwan)

Taken from the forthcoming album 'Say Yes' available to pre-order: https://fat-cat.co.uk/release/say-yes

Catch Big Deal on tour
April 23rd | Are You Listening Festival, Reading, UK
April 29th - May 1st | Handmade Festival, Leicester, UK
June 8th | Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, UK
June 9th | Soup Kitchen, Manchester, UK
June 10th | The Bullingdon, Oxford, UK
June 11th | Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham, UK
June 15th | Oslo, London, UK
June 18th | The Hope & Ruin, Brighton, UK
June 19th | Louisiana, Bristol, UK
July 23rd | Tramlines, Bungalows & Bears, Sheffield, UK
July 28th - 31st | LeeFest: The Neverland, Kent, UK
July 29th - 31st | Cloudspotting Festival, Lancashire, UK
August 10th - 14th | Boardmasters Festival, Watergate Bay, Newquay, UK
September 22nd | Rotown, Rotterdam, NL

Avalanche - Big Deal

Diabolique

Ghost Rider

Elephant Stone are back with their first new release in 3 years, “Land Of Dead”. Clocking in at just under 2 minutes, “Land Of Dead” begins with the haunting strums of a sitar and then dives headfirst into “Paranoid”-era Black Sabbath riffage with Rishi intoning of a “land of fire”. Ending with a child’s lament of “goodbye blue skies, so long clean air...Do you even care?”, Land Of Dead is a dystopian telling of a world undone by our own doing. PLAY LOUD.

Land Of Dead

Here Come The Cops

Band: robocobraquartet@gmail.com
Booking: ​ck@powerline-agency.com 
Management:​ ​joeyedwardsfoh@gmail.com ​

Heaven

Robocobra Quartet

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