Roca. – Queen City Sounds and Art

Roca.’s Music Video for “VIBRA” Perfectly Embodies Its Shifting and Fluidly Organic Structure and Melodies

Roca. tapped video artist NAOWAO to direct the music video for “VIBRA” and the result is an otherworldly interpretation of the psychedelic and diverse soundscape of the song. An animated landscape with flowing rivers, figures illuminating in time with the minimal percussion, a sunrise comes through the legs of a stylized Shinto torii, a cloaked mystic in reflective, coppery red robes floats appearing to contemplate a dream, puffy luminescent clouds float in the sky. Silvery, fluid shapes course through the air and take on the shapes of dancers and runners and blue vegetation edges the shore with tree leaves similarly blue. The whole video feels like a journey as warm vocals keep us from drifting out into the alien landscape for more than just a visit. The effect is reminiscent of a Björk song with sweeps of tone, strands of abstract melody that intertwine and stretch out with the dynamic of a breeze rushing in and fading out. All whirling around and emphasizing the emotional impact of Kay’s voice. Though the visual flair of the video is somewhat surreal it also seems to feature a landscape of shifting shapes and shape shifters as an analog to the way the composition has an organic, informal quality that keeps your attention even as your mind wanders with the song’s evolving rhythms. Watch the video for “VIBRA” on YouTube and connect with Roca. and NAOWAO at the links provided.

Roca.’s website

Roca. on Instagram

naowao.com

The Gooooose remix of “Landscape” by Roca. is Like a Techno Soundtrack to the Urban Exploration of a Site of Alien Civilization

Roca_Landscape1_sm — Roca., photo courtesy the artists

This Gooooose remix of “Landscape” by Roca. defies any conventional genre designation. At times it sounds like an inverted dub production dynamic. The plodding rhythm sounds like someone listened to a lot of minimal techno and decided those beats were entirely too boring and figured out a way to not only slow it down but to also give it a liquid quality rather than one that is like a distinct drum machine sound. The vocals exist in a realm of cybernetic abstraction like a guide to the lost part of an ancient city built by robots. The drones begin as a tone struck and then processed to warp downward, accompanied by stuttering, shuffling textures like a blast of steam being let out. It would be disorienting if it didn’t suggest a definite space, a dark landscape deep inside a planetoid city abandoned by its creators, occupied by a new set of inhabitants for centuries before being abandoned again and now being plumbed by cosmic urban explorers and used by artists to create massive, haunted installation art as reconstituted artificial intelligences arranged using their intelligence and capacity as the materials for a new kind of creative work. This song is really unlike much else you’ll hear until Roca. releases its next song. Listen to “Landscape – Gooooose Remix” on Soundcloud and follow Roca. at the links below.

rocabandinfo.wixsite.com/rocaband
soundcloud.com/rocaband

“TIIMALASI” by Roca. is Evocative of Urban Isolation and a Yearning for Connection

Roca1-lg — Roca., photo courtesy the artists

Roca.’s latest music video for “TIIMALASI,” with clear visual references to Georges Méliès’ 1902 landmark film Le Voyage dans la lune, is a surreal collage of colors, imagery about time and the rushing about of humanity in groups rushing about but emotionally and socially isolated from one another. There is a bit of the aesthetic of the mediated experience one sees in the horror films of Koji Shiraishi and Norio Tsuruta and that gives the experience of the song an unsettling, haunted quality. Musically it echoes a bit of mid-80s Kate Bush minimalism and evokes the emotional isolation depicted perfectly. The incandescent bell tones, ambient washes of sound, warm keyboard drones and high and low arc of the vocals is the sound of modern urban life in Twenty-First Century oligarchy in which true connection to others is discouraged but now more necessary than ever. You can explore more from the Tokyo-based duo and its recently released Gene EP at the links below following the video.

rocabandinfo.wixsite.com/rocaband
soundcloud.com/rocaband