It is a subtle process, one that has been taking decades and that yet is not to be made undone. We become slaves without realizing it. Slaves to ourselves, biased towards exploiting ourselves in the name of self-fulfillment. We get sucked dry by treacherous achievements and allow ourselves to shatter our dreams to pieces. Man has become entangled in its own spider web, is becoming transparent in social media, consumes to fill the void, falls and does not even notice in his hubris. Welcome to this brave new world of our own design. Welcome to "Capitalism TM".
ROTERSAND have risen to the occasion in an era when mass media and the Internet have turned consumers from impassive mutes to all too active squallers. When everyone has a voice, no one has. Fortunately for all of us, ROTERSAND have not been put off by this. Quite the contrary: Theirs is a diametric antithesis to todays' empty club music which gave them the ability to rise with their anthemic tracks and important contents - ever critical, intelligent and closer to philosophy than to working off all those scene related clichés. They deliberately left this to the others.
Their new album "Capitalism TM" is not only reaching a new level: It is also becoming more and more apparent that all the bygone years, all the terrifyingly honest, cynical smashers like "Truth Is Fanatic" or "Content Killer" were but the mere overture to what Germany's most intelligent Electro project is unleashing now. "Capitalism TM" is fury and solace combined: Melodies between desperate hope, cynical realism and a profound melancholy, choruses to kill for and an entire arsenal of potential club bangers mark a new all-time high.
Music with ambition and depth - easier said than done. Still, the thing with uniting the heart and the mind makes a great PR slogan. What it really means to marry impulse and ratio is only becoming apparent through a stronghold like "Capitalism TM". Here, music and lyrics truly walk hand in hand. The one is not to be separated from the other, only together their ambiguous cleverness unfolds. Being a great composer does not automatically entail being a great lyricist. ROTERSAND, however, mark the exception of the rule and deliver a new hybrid of Electro colossus, produced with crystal clear massiveness and armed with a guarantee to detonate - in the clubs as well as in our heads.
Scarred by his endless hubris, also Icarus had to learn: The downfall was imminent. The system collapse will affect us all, and the sooner we rethink, the more harm can be prevented. Although it may sound hackneyed: Listen to ROTERSAND! It will help. And even if their salient messages may fall on deaf ears, there still is this furious Electro tempest that will this lead the pack.
A perpetual battle is raging in our midst. A battle unleashed on the very day the first gear-wheel creakily sprang to life. Man versus machine. Heart versus head. Emotion versus reason. To this day, this battle is without a vanquisher. And how can it be, with a solitary sovereign being neither necessary nor possible? This epiphany hit ROTERSAND far back in their remarkable career. It's not about the conflict, about clinging to rigid formulas. It's about the cooperation, about the merging of man and machine, of heart and mind, of entertainment and content. Electronic music, yet made by humans. Artificial worlds, yet brimming with life. This is what always distinguished ROTERSAND. Since their earliest beginnings they walked the line between catchiness and demanding themes. And since their earliest beginnings, it was their goal to deliver massive club anthems that not only resonate with heavily armed beats and vibrating synth force, but also with their message.
