Intricate guitar patterns and wall of sound synths are part of Halifax four piece Casino Rockets’ world of cerebral alt/math/post-rock. Reality Distortion Field, their debut album, will be released on 21 May. Impala, their first single from the album, is available now.
The band describes the album as one of “persistence and perspective; a journey from the bleakness of the mundane to the exhilaration of elevation; an adventure between the rock bottom and the summit”.
Casino Rockets instinctively aim for the unpredictable, something which sees the album career between seismic shifts in rhythm and structure; a philosophy perfectly encapsulated in lead single Impala, which relates a story of tyranny versus vulnerability. Lyrically, the song alternates between the vision of the lion and the impala, and how both can gain equal footing in the game of life; one through power, one through competence of behaviour. As a metaphor of a personal experience of growing up and steering a path, it relates to anyone who has ever known struggle, and the cinematic and dystopian feel of the accompanying video highlights this further.
The album perpetually reflects the disparate influences of the band, taking in trip hop and electronica to psychedelia and classic rock. The deviance of the drum patterns in Simpatico; the extraordinary structures of Black & Red which somehow evoke both Pink Floyd and British Sea Power; the psychedelic and mesmerising rhythms of Drive Me to The Dusk; the driving otherworldly sci-fi-isms of Feel Me Now; and the daring and prodigious nature of the closing Kachumber. They all combine to weave something that could be the result of several contrary bands randomly stitched together but with a sound that defiantly remains Casino Rockets.
In the making ever since Black & Red was released nearly three years ago, the album has been carefully crafted, and the final track, Kachumber, was shelved several times until the band felt they could do it justice. There was no rushing to produce something so important. “The idea persevered and continued to evolve right up until the final mix,” they say, “eventually becoming what we consider to be a melancholic epic that we feel is a powerful climax to the album. Finally hearing the album and holding it in our hands means such a lot to us. When we set out to write and record Reality Distortion Field we were driven by a passion to create the sound of the band we aspired to be; a sound familiar to our ears but yet to be heard. This has been a deeply profound experience; the realisation of a dream. The question that now excites us the most is: where do we go from here?”
CASINO ROCKETS are TIV WHITAKER (vocals and synths) RICK ANDERSON (guitars and vocals) DAN LEA (bass, synths and vocals) and – out of necessity – the unrecognisable CHRIS (drums).
Produced by Steve Whitfield (The Cure, The Mission, Jane Weaver) and mastered by Dez Ford (Scenius, The Fossil Collective, Klammer).
REALITY DISTORTION FIELD track listing:
IMPALA, PEOPLE LIKE YOU, ONLY LIGHT CAN SAVE YOU, SIMPATICO THIEVES, FONZERELLI, THE MAKER, BLACK & RED, DRIVE ME TO THE DUSK, FEEL ME NOW, KACHUMBER
WEBSITE https://casinorockets.com/
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/casinorocketsuk/
INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/casinorockets/
SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/artist/23TiFdf5dUZYchJxDfpY6K
YOU TUBEhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWIlKrZFaIv8kj_L-_i42XQ
