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Progging it up with Rotor’s 4

They’ve been in the business of instrumental stoner prog since 1998, and on their aptly-titled fourth album, 4, the Berlin trio Rotor (which might also be found written as RotoR) show no signs of slowing with age or growing lazy in their songwriting. If anything, 4 (released through Elektrohasch Schallplatten) is their most progressive offering yet, with quickly turning riffs and dynamics that run somewhere between raucous and tight-woven, the band themselves sounding remarkably crisp while forgoing almost entirely the bombast that’s associated these days with terms like “prog” and “stoner.” Though many would argue those words are inherently a contradiction, Rotor have no trouble putting them together to create an album that relies on overarching groove even as it indulges technical prowess.

You can hear it on a track like “Karacho/Heizer,” toward the end as the drums do a timing shift under an angular but still nod-worthy riff. Rotor sound confident in all aspects of their approach, and even in the brash starts and stops of “Derwisch,” on which the bass notably takes the fore, there is a balance to be found in what 4 offers. The band has grown over time to embrace their prog side more and more, but neither do they shy away from driving a riff home, as they do both on “Derwisch” and the less-overtly active later cut “Die Weisse Angst.” Guitarist/vocalist André “An3” Dietrich of countrymen noisemakers Dÿse shows up on the chemically-formulated track “An3R4,” donating one of the two vocal appearances to 4 and adding an aggression to the song that’s both surprising and a little undercutting of what Rotor does otherwise, but that’s an effective change from the rest of the record anyway.

The only other vocal performance comes courtesy of Nico Kozik on the closing cover of The Obsessed’s “Neatz Brigade” from their 1994 album, The Church Within. Kozik does a decent singing impression of Scott “Wino” Weinrich, and although like “An3R4” the song doesn’t really fit with what’s around it, the discrepancy isn’t so great as to overwhelm the welcomeness of the change. The song makes a decent complement to a riffier cut like “Drehmoment,” and since Rotor work in something of a noise influence on the earlier cut “Gnade Dir Gott,” which follows the intro “Präludium C.V.” and sets the tone well for the complexity to come on the aforementioned “Karacho/Heizer.” Things take a decidedly desert-esque turn on “Costa Verde,” with more spacious guitar notes and a generally patient feel uncommon for most of 4. There’s still a lot going on in the track, but Rotor, as seems to be their specialty, balance it well with sweet guitar tonality and live-sounding drums.

I expect if you’ve never encountered Rotor before, 4 is a good place to start for the sonic diversity in the album’s presentation and the overall richness of its feel. The three players involved like to keep an air of mystery around who they are and what they do (you’ll note the lineup of the band isn’t listed here; because it’s also not anywhere else), but after a few listens, 4 begins to open itself up for interpretation, proving to be a satisfying listen for a very specific but occasionally powerful impulse. Rotor’s 12 years have not been wasted if this the level of output they’ve been able to achieve, and their will to push their sound is evident in these tracks and the fluidity with which they mesh their influences. It’s unpretentious prog that rocks. A rare beast.

Rotor’s website

Elektrohasch Schallplatten

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