Robert Beatty, you rogue. We meet again. You thought you could outrun me, what with your third leg and all, but you learned the hard way that more isn’t always better. I learned that lesson too. I learned it last night when I sat in the parking lot of my local fast food joint at two in the morning and ate six hamburgers when I knew five was my limit. It’s a hard limit, reader. A very hard limit. Anyhow, to transition into talking about Robert Beatty’s music, when it comes to albums, more is actually almost always better. What I mean by that is, I’m almost always excited when someone announces a new album, because, I mean, if people didn’t keep releasing albums and going on tour, I’d be out of a job! So, Robert Beatty, I take back calling you a rogue just now. I actually want to thank you for announcing your new Three Legged Race EP on Underwater Peoples coming out May 27, because now I’ve got something to write about!
The EP is called Rope Commercial Vol. 1, and it’s the first in a series of EPs that Beatty has planned for Underwater Peoples (a fact that people who know about abbreviations probably gleaned from the title). It’s his first release as Three Legged Race since Taboo 3 a couple months ago and Persuasive Barrier in 2012, though of course in 2013 he released the collection of video scores Soundtracks for Takeshi Murata (TMT Review) and was party to Hair Police’s Mercurial Rites (TMT Review).
Rope Commercial Vol. 1 will reportedly be of a piece with Beatty’s recent move away from the “fetishized hardware-oriented model so rampant in current electronic music discourse” (#shade), using a great deal less electronic hardware and even including acoustic instruments such as the dulcimer and piano. The whole thing will come on a picture disc with artwork by Beatty himself. Listen to “All Ajax Dial” off that album below, and give that pre-order button a clickety-click right here.
Rope Commercial Vol. 1 tracklisting:
01. All Ajax Dial
02. Aside From Each Other and Together Overnight
03. New Government
04. The Humidity Mascot
05. Rope Commercial
• Robert Beatty: http://remainsstreet.com
• Underwater Peoples: http://www.underwaterpeoples.com