Heave Media

Rombo Rumble

The Bloody Beetroots get ready to boogie with their first US release.

The Bloody Beetroots

Rombo EP

Released on Nov 04, 2008

It’s hard to make an original dance album.  Most mediocre DJs will rely on a thumping bass that you can feel in your chest and some cheapo electronic drums to get people to dance.  But for the sophisticated listener these acts are ones to ridicule outside while you smoke a Parliament.  Dance music is more than a media to grind to.  It’s something that has to be actually listenable outside of the sweaty clubs and bars they play from.  The Bloody Beetroots also known as Bob Rifo came from very different roots than what their sound draws upon.  Rifo grew up in Italy studying classical music and guitar and traditional sight reading.  But it was the raw, uneducated energy of punk rock that lured Rifo away from Chopin and into the arms of the Clash.  His love for music drove him to devour punk and 80s new wave music.  His band Bob Rifo’s Gang embodied the spirit of these two genres, but Rifo desired to push his art in a more “dance-‘til-dawn” direction.  Thus, the Bloody Beetroots were born. 

The Bloody Beetroots’ first US release Rombo lives up to Rifo’s aspirations of making a great dance album.  Rifo has a knack for building his songs from a simple riff into a full-blown riot.  The opening track “Rombo” which features fellow Italian DJ Congorock starts with a simple ascending/descending concept on a synthesizer and progressively grows louder and stranger as the song continues.  The steady bass line is still present but what separates Rifo from the plebian DJ is his use of it.  The bass doesn’t start until midway through the track and acts more of a metronome than the main feature of “Rombo.”  Rifo’s training in classical music also appears in Rombo, combined with elements of punk and, of course, electronic music.  The modestly titled “I Love the Bloody Beetroots” isn’t as raw as punk is, but Rifo uses distortion on his main riff to make it sound a little less clean and a little more impure.

But this classical music meets punk/electronic continues on into tracks like “Butter,” a repetitive but down and dirty song that would still fit right in at the club.  With only five songs to impress, two of which are the same track only different mixes, the Bloody Beetroots don’t give enough to blow away an audience.  Rombo tends to play off of the ascending/descending concept throughout, which can get a little irritating if you have heard some of Rifo’s remixes and know how talented he is.  The potential for a great original release is there, and it will be interesting to see how the Bloody Beetroots evolves in its first full-length release.

Posted by Amy Dittmeier on Jan 13, 2009 @ 9:00 am