Posted on: November 12, 2008 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

“Lowfish’s music is enormously catchy modern electro, eschewing currently fashionable digital trickery for good old analog skills.” – XLR8R

“Referencing Detroit techno, Italo-disco, and the synthpop of Speak and Spell era Depeche Mode, Lowfish’s full-spectrum electro nonetheless has a quality all its own. Lowfish’s world is a pastoral Eden of bumblebee love songs and sentient machines chorusing in perfect harmony.” – Earplug

“His sound skirts a lot of edges…echoes of classic 80’s industrial [and] genuine Kraftwerkian tendencies” – URB

Lowfish, a.k.a. Toronto’s Gregory De Rocher, ranks amoung the worlds leading electronica producers. He has released records on some of independent dance music’s most influential labels, has charted in North America and is noted for his punishing sets of live electronics.

His clinical production style is both very modern and built on the DNA of early new wave and IDM. Sometimes dark, often melodic and multi-layered, Lowfish tracks strive for meaning, timelessness and quality. The weapons of choice are what they have been from the start; semi-operational analog synths, temperamental drum machines and scratchy recording gear. The name Lowfish is a reference to these dusty machines and his early lo-fi “ish” sound – thus Lowfish.

With six albums and a stack of singles behind him, 2008 see’s Lowfish aggressively pushing his sound forward. He’s been hard at work distilling his pristine electro and throbbing analog buzz into a new techno variant. The playfulness of yesteryear is somewhere deep in the background with the fine detail of machinery and staccato bass lines taking the fore. The result is frozen&broken on Noise Factory Records. Ten brand new tracks of edgy analog electronica reminiscent of Lowfish’s famed Suction Records era IDM and an aberrant dance floor sound built from his most deviant sound palette to date.

INFLUENCES

Then: OMD, Autechre, Aphex Twin, Front 242, Skinny Puppy, Giorgio Moroder, A. Rother

Now: Solvent, Claro Intelecto, Booka Shade, Boris Divider, Anders Llar, Modeselektor

ABOUT frozen&broken

This is Lowfish rebuilt and reassembled. Well known for his punishing analog electro and catchy melodic electronica, Canada’s Lowfish’s sixth full-length album is on Noise Factory Records. frozen&broken represents Lowfish’s most complex, most brooding and most cohesive record to date. The playful robotics of yesteryear is well in place, but it’s the fine detail of machinery and staccato bass that now take the fore. This is a record steeped in the craft of electronic music and strives to work both on and off the dance floor. It’s a record painstakingly produced with both state of the art digital tools and an ever malfunctioning, temperamental room full of dated synths and rhythm boxes. frozen&broken is ten brand new Lowfish tracks covering perfectly formed midnight techno variants, electro themes to a blade runner-esque metropolis and artificial intelligence era IDM rammed with the modulations and configurations of Detroit electro.

Lowfish is Toronto born Gregory De Rocher who has been committing his own brand of “enormously catchy modern electro” to tape since 1995. He has released records, tracks and remixes on some of independent dance music’s most influential labels including Ghostly International, Satamile, Morr Music, Hymen, Crème, Ersatz Audio and Lo Recordings. From 1999 to 2007 he ran the critically acclaimed Suction Records label (RIP) with long time co-conspirator Solvent who together released some 20+ albums and singles of “Robot Music”. His 2008 album Burn The Lights Out (Satamile Records) charted top-10 in North American college radio. Noted for his intense sets of live electronics he has toured extensively playing alongside contemporaries such as Solvent, Adult., Skanfrom, Detroit Grand Pubahs, Speedy J, Bola, Ulrich Schnauss, Legowelt and Ectomorph. His clinical production style is both very modern and built on the DNA of early new wave and IDM. Sometimes dark, often melodic and multi-layered, Lowfish tracks strive for a unique, timeless quality. The weapons of choice are what they have been from the start; semi-operational analog synths, temperamental drum machines and scratchy recording gear. The name Lowfish is a reference to these dusty machines and his early lo-fi “ish” sound – thus Lowfish.

IN THE PRESS

“Lowfish’s music is enormously catchy modern electro, eschewing currently fashionable digital trickery for good old analog skills.” – XLR8R

“Lowfish is a master of his art, pure emotion wrought out of electricity and machines, all done in a uniquely futuristic styling [he] is renowned for.” – Bi-Wire (UK)

“Canadian Gregory de Rocher seems to have eliminated most of pop’s errors. [His] melodies quickly worm into the mind, making it easy to overlook the subtle details of production that make his much more than nostalgic pap.” – XLR8R

“Lowfish’s music is deceptively simple, enormously catchy modern electronica, eschewing currently fashionable digital trickery for good old analog skills.” – XLR8R

“Fearsome neo-post electro wave and beautiful melodic digressions in a well done dancefloor package.” – Soul Seduction (UK)

“Meloldic electronica and hip swinging electro…beautiful basslines & delicate vocoder…incredibly inventive” – Muzik (UK)

“Lowfish emaphsizes the glory of electro, while connecting the dots between the 80’s and the 00’s “– FAQT

“Lowfish operates in a genre created by him – adrenaline fuelled electro/wave” – Atome.com

“Forget the watered-down schlock that passes for electro these days-this is pure, unadulterated synth music, and it rules.” – Vice

“Gregory de Rocher creates tantalizing analogue sounds without resorting to recycled melodies. His sounds are warmer than Kraftwerk’s and go beyond vintage electronica. They’ll still be around when the next musical trend starts.” – Sydney Morning Herald

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