Robintone at Beatismurder.com: She Ate All The Pancake EP

Once thing is for sure: Robintone, the skinny geek on the She Ate All The Pancake-front cover, looks like someone whose dinner was stolen. But who is ’she’? Grown up with a little sister, I’m pretty sure he’s also talking about his snotty little sis. Little sisters eat your pancakes and the anger fades just a few hours later. The title might implicate some sweet childhood memories you use to refresh when things aren’t going too well, these hours of melancholy sadness. I can’t believe Robintone addresses this shy lamentation to a (former?) girlfriend- how disappointing, how SAD would that be! Even despite the decent aura of androgyny, the boy Robin builds up with unmasking photos and falsetto-singing, the girl-leaves-boy topic appears far too flat to me. His Lyrics, at least, indicate the later. Hey Swift, what about the music? Sorry.

The She Ate All The Pancake EP is sort of a distillate from a whole bunch of tracks Robintone used to write and tape every month. The songs are made of beautiful analogue synthesizers, Robin’s brittle yet beautiful voice, some drums, claps, recorder and a lot of other things that accidentally lay around in the rehearsal room. Dino of Beatismurder quotes Brian Wilson (without the drugs) or Final Fantasy for comparison. I agree and add Grandaddy and Islands, for the lo-fi DIY-aesthetic and the quirky synthesizers.

We’re starting with Anymore. The short song opens with a little sample saying Go away. Glockenspiel and keys come together for a heartbreaking melody. Robin sings I don’t like you anymore and you can hear: he doesn’t really mean it. Darwinian Rhapsody (a Queen-reference?) afterwards features a funny synth that sounds like a Jew’s harp. Also up: flute, some guitar-chords, thrashy drums, even more synthesizers. Robintone says thank you to his parents with uplifting vocal harmonies. No irony in here. Pow!
Position number three is S.Y.T. (Save Your Tears). This song is definitely the hitsingle. Build from a delightful piano-motiv, Robin adds his rumbling drums, nice synthetic bubblings and his voice in two, three pastoral layers. Maybe this description doesn’t sound very interesting. But the thing is: the best songs are the hardest to describe. ‘Leaving’ is the topical superstructure, once again. Cowboy Song (For Martha) is a song you shouldn’t forget to check. It starts a bit more cautious than S.Y.T. but rises to giant proportions with an armada of synthesizers, piano and the sweet Robintone-choir. Would I choose to leave? Will you cry for me? Put your hands up for Robintone!

Beatismurder are at the edge of netaudio. There is no other netlabel like this and if Dino Spiluttini keeps releasing such beautiful and strange music, 2007 will be a good year. 

Get the record here: She Ate All The Pancake EP
Direct download: Get the zip-file!