Rollerball - The Traviste Of Paint                                     www.hysm.altervista.org

Melodrammatici e avanguardisti patentati, i Rollerball scivolano con grazioso fasto tra kraut rock, jazz, drone, gypsy, & afrobeat senza macchie di dilettantismo. Il loro recente The Traviste of paint aggiunge ancora un'altro velo di bellezza raffinata al magnifico repertorio di questo gruppo di Portland.




www.hysm.altervista.org                                                                    
Fixtures in Portland's underground-rock scene for over a decade, Rollerball continue to ply their expansive, rococo art rock with dramatic flair, long past the point where most groups start to fall off. While they may have peaked during their years on the late, lamented Road Cone label (check 2001's Trail of the Butter Yeti for the ultimate Roller-ball recording), the quartet—who are implausibly huge in Italy—still can summon powerful, Can-like rhythm mantras and interesting stylistic promiscuity. The tension between their accessible song structures and liberating experimentation lends Rollerball's music a compelling friction, elevating them above most in the crowded Northwest rock pool. DAVE SEGAL...  the stranger

Parte pieno di “dub” e di “hip-hop” stralunato (Introduction) questo “The Traviste Of Pain” degli statunitensi Rollerball, ben noti al pubblico nostrano quali autori a volte pregiati di un curioso “post-rock in opposition” (la voce di Mae Starr suscita proprio ricordi di Dagmar Krause in Bontempi) e “compagni di merende” di Ovo, Ronin, Bachi da Pietra ecc.
In questo CD(-R, per la HysM), aumenta la presenza di batterie elettroniche e di stilemi quasi “funk” (Connies Meth Lab e/o Do The Eubie); la Starr e gli altri componenti del gruppo – Amanda Mason Wiles, Gilles, Monte Trent Allen – lavorano soprattutto sugli aspetti ritmici dei brani, veicolando ad essi la sperimentazione sonora (i fiati di Threat Of Music, i rumori tribali di Birds Without Souls e/o Cesena Remix). Una realizzazione convincente (buone referenze non mentono). ...kathodik                                                        NOVA MUZIQUE

Vengono da Portland, Oregon e nonostante un numero non facilmente
quantificabile di uscite alle spalle, hanno decisamente bisogno di
presentazioni. Qui in Italia, a parte un paio di album per Wallace
Records ed uno split con gli OvO per Bar la Muerte non hanno mai
incontrato il consenso del (grande?) pubblico underground, nonostante
l'aura di cult-band che si portano dietro dagli States. Ma lasciando i
panni da cerimoniere, confesso che nanch'io ho mai nutrito il minimo
attaccamento verso i nostri e spero che l'ascolto "forzato" di questo
ultimo lavoro accenda qualcosa nel mio cuore. Anche perchè musicalmente
i Rollerball sono mozzafiato: un gruppo di moderni hippie con
attitudini strumentali degne di session-man navigati che scivolano con
grazia e raffinatezza estrema tra pop, acid jazz, prog rock, wave,
neo-folk, afrobeat ed ambient con un retrogusto che sà di avanguardie
storiche. Immagino session infinite da cui nascono i delicati ricami
delle loro composizioni, aperte, visionarie, assolutamente aliene..
fiati ed elettronica che si avvinghiano alla ricerca di dimensioni
sonore inesplorate. Questo è "the traviste of paint": un disco ostico,
che difficilmente piace al primo ascolto perchè richiede sforzi
celebrali non da poco prima di riuscire ad abbandonarsi agli equilibri
che crea. La dimestichezza del quartetto di passare dalla forma canzone
ad un rumorismo di stampo lounge/mistico è il fulcro della bellezza
delle loro composizioni, il nodo cruciale in cui pesano tutti gli anni
di esperienza accumulati. La nota dolente è che la "morbidezza" che
impregna questi nove brani, ovatta l'ascolto e rischia di stancare dopo
un pò. Si sente la mancanza di suoni più spigolosi e potenti che
ridestino l'attenzione dell'ascoltatore più distratto e meno propenso a
proposte così distensive. "do the eubie" adempie vagamente a questo
compito, ma resta un'episodio isolato. Probabilmente questa è solo
un'esigenza delle mie orecchie abituate a tutt'altro tipo di fruizione,
ma ho trovato doveroso sottolineare questa mia personale sensazione.
"the
traviste of paint" esce per Hysm? e devo ammettere che fa un pò strano
vedere un gruppo così "anziano" uscire per una giovanissima etichetta
al numero 009 del loro catalogo. Di sicuro una bella soddisfazione per
la realtà pugliese che si sta gradualmente guadagnando il proprio posto
nel panorama underground.

Rollerball were last featured by Gothic Beauty in 2004 & are back with a mind-bending release.  While it is, for me, reminiscent of a soundtrack to a David Lynch film, I don't think even Lynch could come up with something this off the wall.  The album defies description beyond, possibly, psychedelic lounge music.  The album is backed by a full band of drummers, cellists, trombone players, electronics, you name it.  This album goes as deeply into your head as it can &, before you know it, it's gone.  Rollerball are truly for those who want to step off the beaten path to something a little... different.  Wonderful.
~ David Poseidon, Gothic Beauty

Rollerball's 11th album (their 3rd for Silber) is entitled Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause, and is excellently packaged in an embossed/screen printed cardboard sleeve. The eclecticism expected of Rollerball is present here, from the arcane experimentalism of Quench, to the absolutely brilliant jazz-pop-rock of Erzulie, to the jazz-ambient of So This Is That?, to the demonic yowling and sinister sound manipulation of Mantis Segue, as well as a number of tracks that bridge the gap between song-based and experimental, such as the quirky and manically delivered lyrics of Sores, set to a combination of jazz and homemade experimental weirdness. Rollerball's more abstract and random moments are a bit too much for these ears, but at their best and most tuneful, they are truly great. Tracks like Erzulie, Tambien and End of Young Birds are especially fantastic and are a return to the greatness found on their Real Hair album.
~ Kim Harten, blissaquamarine

Hints of modern cabaret and free-association instrumentation make up Rollerball's 11th album, Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause.  Jumping from genres quicker than a Southerner can quote the Bible, this extremely eclectic quintet took only nine months to make their new album.  Some of the 15 tracks some burn with fire and brimstone while others are pure instrumental post-modern carnival rides.  Rollerball start their album with a bang with "Quench", "Erzulie" and "Fucker" using instruments and electronics as aural weapons, but the Mazzy Star-meets-Thom Yorke beauty of (suitably named) Mae Starr's voice is quickly replaced by what sounds like an entirely different band on "Sores" and "Break Your Neck".  Alternating singer S. de Leon S. comes across as a less-piano-driven Ben Folds as he jokingly sings about his girlfriend's chicken parts.  The middle of this album slows quite considerably and at times the band gets too wrapped up in pushing the musical envelope, sacrificing melody and structure for their art. There is something very Tom Waits-ian about this band's sound and approach, but I think they would have faired better to make two distinct albums instead of one long, droning assemblage.
There is a quip on the band's website about them "living" at the Ranch Rollerball and Saloon where they dine and practice. There couldn't be a more appropriate image of this band, which have truly created a musical smorgasbord with Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause.  Rollerball are headed to heavy rotation on "Morning Goes Eclectic".
~ Vivien Weimar, SickAmongthePure

The Rollerball story dates back to the early 90's, 1994 to be exact where the band was formed in Portland. Since 1997 they've released over ten albums already and now here in 2005 Silber Records is releasing their new album called Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause. In the early days the band played some sort of power-pop music (whatever that may be) and then a few years down the road they got sick of that sound and added more members and altered their sound into something much different. The Rollerball of today is a bit hard to describe, but here goes. This group of five with several guest musicians plays some sort of strange jazzy, lounge music with ambient, rock, and experimental music influences. Strange I know, but this a strangely great album.
My favorite song without question is the second track "Erzulie." This particular track uses a piano, bass, light percussion, vocals, and various brass instruments. The feeling the song has is that of a dark jazzy loungy sentiment, and well what can I say the song is incredible, but hard to explain. Another interesting song is "Sores," which starts out rather calm but as the song progresses the instruments gain momentum, and the vocalist starts to use some really wild voices. I also like "Tambien" a lot since it's an up tempo song that uses an accordion, percussion, and various vocalists singing rather nicely. Largely though the album is instrumental or just uses wordless vocals. Most of the songs are weird mixed up jazz experimental like songs, which really can't be described. You'd just have to hear them to understand them.
All things considered Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause is a rather good but definitely unconventional album. Those that have interest in jazz, lounge, or just something different sounding should check this band out.
~ Blackwinged, Lunar Hypnosis

Drama queens with serious avant-garde credentials, Rollerball shapeshift with subtle grandiosity among krout rock, jazz, drone, gypsy, & afrobeat without the taint of dilettantism.  Their great recent Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause adds yet another layer of mysterious beauty to the Portland ensemble's stunning repertoir.
~ Dave Segal, The Stranger

Out on the same label that re-issued Lycia's Estrella is the 5 piece Rollerball.  With Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause they present their eleventh CD & their third on Silber.  Soundwise Rollerball melt different ingredients from analog jazz to digital noise.  Add to this a horn section with tuba & sax & you have a very enjoyable potpurri.  If you doubt that this combo could work, consider that David Sylvian is the living proof that electronics should not limit their senses.  The combination naturally makes that the whole as this album swims in a jazz atmosphere.  Add to this female & male vocals that are close to Sting going blues & you have an extra border.  Not a problem for me, perhaps it is for others.
~ Bernard Van Isacker, Side-Line

On their 11th album (the third for Silber) Rollerball continue their sonic experimentation mixing jazz-noise with pop sensibilities, ambient drones with surreal lyrics and launching the whole thing deep into space. Opening track 'Quench' welcome the listener in with tinkling bells and whispered vocal, as the instruments rumble and drone underneath slowly building the tension before 'Erzulie' takes over sounding like big band jazz played by a bunch of talented stoners.
Further in 'Tipping The Tree' is a dub torch song, the pulsing rhythm overlaid with electronic effects and lashings of echo, whilst 'sores' is a jazz poem awash with glorious percussion and driving bass the vocals dealing with a bad case of chicken-pox.'Tambien' adds a touch of melody to the proceedings, the brass creating a warm ambience to the tune, which is quickly forgotten as the instrumental 'Jack To Jac' disintegrates into some free-jazz noise squalling its way through the listeners ears before 'Quad Four' brings back the warm brass blanket to massage the noise away. Eventually we reach the albums final track 'Maime'. Beginning with eastern percussion our eyes are torn out so that we can see, the musicians creating a brooding ambience where the shadows hide our deepest fears, then silence, before a maelstrom of discordant noise finally drives any sense of reality from our minds.
Managing to contain fifteen songs within an hour of music gives this album a schizophrenic cut and paste feel, something that is enhanced by the use of thirteen players (including a horn section), allowing each song a chance to utilise a different combination of sounds, creating a wide-ranging and beautifully realised body of work. With the emphasis on rhythm and texture Rollerball have produced their finest work so far, more complex, darker, less structured and a fantastic ride from start to finish.
~ Simon Lewis, Ptolemaic Terrascope

Just because Rollerball, a quintet from Portland, Oregon, have not used any of their last ten albums to present a coherent vision of what they may (or may not) be, it doesn't mean that Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause will be any different.  Indeed, this 11th studio album, taking its name from a not especially edifying homophonic coincidence, often sounds like the product of several groups.  The transit from the unstructured free jazz of "Jack to Jac" to the magnificent sleazy progress of songs like "Erluzie" & "Tambien" is a long, long one.  But just possibly it's this journey that the listener is meant to keep in mind.
Tracks will often incorporat what seem like found sounds: highway ambience, engine noises, more arcane field recordings.  The chord stretching uluations on "Mantis Segue" probably don't come from the bottom drawer of an ethnomusicologist, but one has the feeling that they'd like to be.  The one pattern that emerges from this most catholic approach to songwriting is this: for every ear-bending squawl of one track, you know that its successor will be a rather good song, in the mould of Yo La Tengo or The Devics after an all night bender.  The swaying, parping brass on "Ederlezi" is a wonderful effort in staying upright and, while pieces like "Quench" - a spoken word intro on which Stefania Pedretti's delivery is slurred & so too is Molly Griffith's cello - are challenging, then the thrill of Rollerball's pounding piano on "Erzulie" or Griffith's fluid strings on "Maime" are well worth the bewilderment.
~ Louise Gray, The Wire

I've never heard of Rollerball before, but a quick glance at their biography teaches me that this is already the band's eleventh (!) album. It is called Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause and is the third full-length on Silber, a record label that's releasing music of a wide variety of genres. Rollerball exists for over a decade now. You might have noticed their Cochon records release in the past.
Rollerball's highly experimenting with all kinds of instruments, voices and sounds on Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause. This hodgepodge of sounds and timbres lucidly creates a colourful album that's very organic and diverse and stretches across genres and boundaries. This one time the band sounds like a modern pop band, minutes later they're playing in the vein of Matmos, seconds later they're sounding like a progressive rock band or they play a Constellation type of post-rock. It's very hard to digest, and it doesn't get easier to listen to when the band's searching it's hail in noise and cacaphony in the meantime.
The band's audibly not really interested in firm song structures and a tight rhythm. They're freejazzing all over, with a heap of musicians playing a heap of instruments: tuba, drums, bass, keyboards, percussion, sax, clarinet, trumpet… The result is not a bombastic album, as one would probably expect from a band with this instrumentation. The band's not really using all instruments simultaneously together to create songs that smack our heads hard down to the floor, but creates an album that's probably more about sounds than it is about songs.
Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause clearly is an album that seeks interaction and needs to be listened to actively. If not, it might drown in a mess of experiments and noises. It's searching for a way into your brains and looks for a place to settle down up there. There's some real good things on here, but there's equally as much low-quality passages that critically need to be waded through. And especially the latter made me conclude that this is an album that's definitely interesting, but didn't fully convince me.
~ Thomas Byttebier, Semtex Magazine

After the slightly disappointing Behind the Barber (not bad, simply a bit insubstantial), Rollerball answered with one of their best albums yet, the more song-oriented Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause. Actually, the 15 tracks on this CD are almost evenly split between songs and instrumentals, but Mini Wagonwheel and co. are smoothing things down on this release.
Exit the ska-punk episodes: the songs lean toward intelligent pop, with accessible arrangements and moving melodies. Of course, things are not that simple and the lyrics would not pass by unnoticed on mainstream radio (even songs like the beautiful "Erzulie" and "Coburn" have an odd atmosphere), but Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause contains some of Rollerball's best-written, most memorable material. Plus, it features Mae Starr as a full-fledged singer, her deep alto voice crooning seductively. As usual with this band, the instrumentals shuffle the deck: odd beats, strange solos, a reggae feel here, an avant-jazz angularity there -- they act like prisms showing different facets of what has just been heard. Both songs and instrumentals are kept short and to the point: no wasted time, no extra chorus repeated for the sake of duration. Melodies are catchy enough to catch them the first time, so once they have been exposed, the band moves on to the next transitional tune, then straight into another song. The basic quintet receives help from a cast of regular friends, including singer Stefania Pedretti and drummer Bruno Dorella (of OvO), tubist Ben Wright, and maverick sax player Jacopo Andreini.
There is not a single throwaway on this album, except maybe for the "hidden" lo-fi jam, which will definitely not be to everyone¹s liking. But who cares, as long as we have songs like "Erzulie", "Tipping the Tree", and "Sores"? Recommended.
~François Couture, All Music Guide

Rollerball's 11th album, Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause, is an unconventionally experimental psycho-jazz works that is, at once, entertaining and gothic in nature. Discordantly ambient using conventional instruments and free-style in method makes this album a foray into the dark side of music, like an out of control acid trip. Most of the songs like "So This is That?" can be quite interesting in a "closed-eye" environment where you can let the music float through you rather than as background music. However, when the next song, "Sore" pokes its head into your cranium, it is a departure in that its free-style psycho-jazz separates the flow.
You'll hear sax, trumpets, clarinets, and trombones amidst drums, bass, guitars, and keys. Mix in the gothically ethereal vocals (the female vocalist reminds one of a Patti Smith without borders) that permeate many of these songs and merge with the jam-like style, and you get a highly experimental album done by Rollerball with no audience in mind. Rollerball is music for music's sake regardless of its unconventionality. Having stated that concerning this album as well as their previous works, it is important for you to know that not everyone will be open to Rollerball's style. It is imperative that you enjoy music in every form for you to be comfortable and happy with this and previous Rollerball releases. However, if you're that kind of listener, then a solidly relaxed atmosphere (a bit of the toke wouldn't hurt here either), then what Rollerball offers on Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause is well intentioned and works under controlled situations.
Not every song on this album is of the right grade. Their "Ederlezi" track is quite selfish and thus is a distraction from the flow of the album. But this is a small hiccup to an otherwise interesting album.
Remember, music is music under many circumstances. Remove the familiar, and let the music flow on its own. You'll get more out of it. But also remember, Rollerball is for open minds.
~ Matt Rowe, Music Tap

Before I received this review copy I was unaware of the existence of this band, nevertheless Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause is the eleventh album released by this fellowship from North Carolina. Given the fact that their first album was released in 1997, it's as plain as day the ladies and gentlemen of this band have kept themselves busy the previous eight years. The cd that can be found in the stylish cardboard packaging lets us hear music which can most certainly be called original and even obstinate. Jazz, pop, digital noise as well as ambient caress your ears here. To get one's hands on a cd such as this one is not very common for a Gothtronic reviewer like me. Who knows, maybe I've been a jazzcat in an earlier life and was it therefore predestinated that I had to judge this longplayer. Yeah, right.
Besides the five regular band members a total of eight(!) guest musicians have contributed to this fifteen-track album. This adds to the diversity but fortunately the amount of input doesn't derail the record. Nevertheless the musical arsenal featured here is quite overwhelming: not only several male and female vocalists, but also keyboards, guitar, bass, percussion, drums, electronic drums, sampler, clarinets, alto saxophones, trumpets, accordion, tuba, cello and valve trombone have been used in order to transform the band's vision into sound. Now that's what I call an instrumentarium!
This sweltering and organic sounding cd has several faces. Accessible, hazy, relaxing, crawling under your skin, emotional, energetic, it all applies to Rollerball. There are several pop songs on this disc which sound like a post punk band (think of Wire or Lost Sounds) happily dabbling into jazz. This results in songs such as the catchy "Erzulie," also "Tipping The Tree" and "Sores" are palatable. However, this band likes to experiment and to explore frontiers. This leads to odd ambient and even almost lounge-like music which reminds me mostly of a jazz approach of the Italian act T.A.C. does or a more acoustic version of Aphex Twin's works. Even the altfolk played by Black Forest/Black Sea comes in mind. It's obvious that this band manages to escape a clear classification. It won't hurt to listen to it before buying or visit a show of them first if they're in the neighbourhood. A bit weird, yet tasty.
~ Nanhold, Gothtronic

I don't know if this is a good thing, but I'm starting to like this free form alt jazz shit that I've been getting in.  Rollerball has me inspired to bust out some watercolors & gauche & do some nature studies.  I'm not usually into dub or hip-hop beats, but the laid strings & horns sucked me in.  At times it sounds like the orchestral build up in "Day in the Life" by the Beatles, but lo-fi.  If you like Bablicon, Need New Body, & OvO then you'll love this.
~ Mike Turner, The Bee's Knees

Talk about difficult to describe. The folks in Rollerball truly do create music that stretches across boundaries and continents. One moment they sound like The Residents...a moment later they sound like Yoko Ono and/or Jarboe...and a song or two later they sound like some updated British progressive rock band from the 1970s...or a modern classical ensemble...or even a moody modern progressive pop band. By continually transforming themselves and their style, the folks in this band are bound to lose almost everyone in the process. And that is something we just have to admire. Rollerball consists of Mini Wagonwheel, Mae Starr, Gilles, Amanda Mason Wiles, and S. de Leon S....but adding additional assistance are eight additional musicians. Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause is so intelligent and so difficult to digest that the album will, most likely, only be appreciated by a few small group of people. But for that tiny group of open minded folks...there are some really great treats to be found here. Cool confusing compositions like "Quench," "Fucker," "Break In Your Neck," "Tambien," and "Quad Four" have true depth and amazing quality. Absolutely stunning packaging on this one...
~ Babysue

You can never be quite sure what to expect when there's time for a new release from Portland's Rollerball. There's the air-polluted jazz and fragile folk/chamber explorations of Trail of the Butter Yeti (still their true masterpiece if you ask me) and the poppy and cabaret theatric side of their Silber debut Real Hair. If we go further back in their 11 albums long discography we'll find all sorts of deranged, jazz streaked expeditions, drones, psychedelia, skronking noise-beats laced with samples and there's even some power pop thrown in for good measure. Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause offers a bit of all these styles although it emphasizes on the kind of spacious, fluid and organic jazz no one but these cats ever could do. To call Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause free jazz will give you the wrong idea, but this is truly music that is free from any kind of constraint and is free to wander wherever it wants to go next. It's all fairly melodious and at times even catchy but it's still as much an album about sounds as about songs. All in all another capable and inspiring addition to an already impressive back catalogue.
~ Mats Gustafson, The Broken Face

Well the title of Rollerball's latest disc is highly timely, what with the old pope dying, the conclave shit, and the Catholic Church installing a former member of the Hitler Youth as their new leader. We are living in fucked up times & Rollerball's fucked up music is entirely appropriate for them.
The packaging on this disc is beautifully letter pressed. It has great wood block prints as inserts. Also included are absolutely wonderful & hilarious portraits of the band. The music itself is as eclectic as ever. On this disc they have guest members from the crazy Italian band Ovo: they add a creepy feel to the already far-out mix.
"Erzulie" is in the tradition of "Wyoming," from their earlier disc. It features the fantastic piano and vocals of Mae Starr. Rollerball's trademark wall of horns of Shane & Amanda is featured. Mini-Wagonwheel has a great burping bass line while Gilles' drums rumble and crash.
"Sores" is my favorite song on the disc. It starts sounding like a creepy children song about chicken pox. "Blisters and sores, blood and gore, my baby's got chicken pox and golden locks." Then frenetic drum machine is added to the mix, with clattering piano and squawking horns. The song ends with a dead chicken lying near a fence.
I really dig the more dubby shit on this disc like "Coburn." Everything floats together on this jam, with Mae's vocal that has a weird echo on it, and the booming drum beats and subtle electronics. It has the great line, "The scent that wraps around like weight. The hand that fucks the taste."
Rollerball has returned to their roots of home recording with this disc. I feel this style of recording well suits this band. Home recording allows Rollerball to explore the furthest reaches of their sonic galaxy. This disc finds a balance between their more far-out extraterrestrial dub, skronk-jazz, noise rock and their more down-to-earth gypsy pop.
~ Dan Cohoon, Amplitude Equals Frequency Squared

Rollerball is Mini Wagonwheel, bass, keyboards, percussion, guitar, Mae Star, vocals, keyboard, sampler, accordion, Gilles, drums, percussion, electronic drums, Amanda Mason Wiles, alt sax, vocals, S. De Leon S., trumpet, clarinet, vocals, keyboard, percussion, with Ben Wright on tuba, Italian Jacopo Andreini on alto sax, vocals, percussion, Jamie Smith (Dang Head) on clarinet, Dylan Hinkley (Dang Head) on valve trombone, Molly Griffith, cello, Bruno Dorella, drums, The Led, vocals.
This is already their 11th album. And I must say it is a hard ball to break. Their music is genre crossing rock with jazz and other elements, with an intelligent, complex developed and matured sound. There is a variety of structures, song orientated, theatre related, freeminded jazz improvisational, with lots of switches and elements of experimenting, hard to describe its varied focus, because it's always somewhere in some mix.
~ Gerald Van Waes, psychevanhetfolk

There's quite a bit to like here. It's unpredictable, and keeps you on edge, listening for what could possibly happen next; unfettered by traditional song structures, it's so free and organic, exploring. At times it grabs you emotionally, but a lot of the time it distances itself in some remote and wandering place . . . you feel like you want to leave it alone, to sort out it's own thoughts, because there's no possible way for you to approach or speak to it. I need to listen to it a few dozen more times.
~ Static Signals

Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause is Portland, Oregon based Rollerball's 11th album and their third for the Silber label. The core of the band is a quintet, playing guitar, bass, keyboards, drums & percussion, accordion, saxophone, clarinet and vocals, plus numerous guests on drums, vocals, cello and a variety of horns and winds. I've heard Rollerball's last several releases and have learned that it's hard to know what to expect from these folks from one album to the next. But they've never failed to at least intrigue, and often delight, with their well crafted combination of varied and contrasting elements into a unique and stimulating whole.
Ok, lots happening here, and it often changes radically from one track to the next. There are 15 relatively short tracks on the CD. Among the highlights are "Quench" and "Mantis Segue", which have the most devastating vocals on the album. "Quench" features haunting, whispery vocals (in Italian) against an avant-garde free-improv/classical styled rumbling of horns, strings, drums and drones. "Mantis Segue" is similar but instead of horns we've got prominent percussion, scratchings and electronics. "Erzulie", "Tambien" and "Quad Four" are pop songs based in avant-prog rock with jazz elements and, particularly on "Quench", seductive melodies. "Sores" is a fun, strange song with nutty lyrics and vocals that are a dead ringer for Little Fyodor. "Tipping The Tree" is a very cool mixture of sultry lounge jazz, Dub, dance grooves and spacey atmospherics. "Break In Your Neck" is similar but based in New Orleans jazz. Very hard to describe but pretty wild and captivating stuff. "So This Is That?" consists of cosmic space keyboards and freaky jazz horns swirling within a light Dub coating. This is one I would have really like to hear further developed beyond its mere 3 minutes. "Maime" is the 16 minute closing track and starts off like it's going to be a lengthy synthesis of everything we've heard on the album so far. But after a few minutes we get silence. Ok fine… when bands do this you can usually predict that at some point some secret treaty will kick in, and sure enough around the 8 minute mark the music starts again and it's a quirky, oddball kind of jazz jam with elements of Sun Ra, free-jazz and experimental free-improv. The sound isn't so hot and I'm guessing it's a recording of a live performance.
In summary, if these descriptions sound like Rollerball are stylistically all over the place, they really aren't. There's variety to be sure, but the band have set their sights on a handful of ideas which they've developed, molded and mutated into the enjoyable and remarkably creative set of music that Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause has to offer. I can imagine this appealing to a varied audience… avant-garde free-improv fans who like an injection of melody and song, free-jazz lovers with eclectic tastes, and avant-prog/RIO fans interested in something with a more experimental edge.
~ Jerry Kranitz, Aural Innovations

On their 11th album (the third for Silber) Rollerball continue their sonic experimentation mixing jazz-noise with pop sensibilities, ambient drones with surreal lyrics and launching the whole thing deep into space. Opening track 'Quench' welcome the listener in with tinkling bells and whispered vocal, as the instruments rumble and drone underneath slowly building the tension before 'Erzulie' takes over sounding like big band jazz played by a bunch of talented stoners.
Further in 'Tipping The Tree' is a dub torch song, the pulsing rhythm overlaid with electronic effects and lashings of echo, whilst 'sores' is a jazz poem awash with glorious percussion and driving bass the vocals dealing with a bad case of chicken-pox.'Tambien' adds a touch of melody to the proceedings, the brass creating a warm ambience to the tune, which is quickly forgotten as the instrumental 'Jack To Jac' disintegrates into some free-jazz noise squalling its way through the listeners ears before 'Quad Four' brings back the warm brass blanket to massage the noise away. Eventually we reach the albums final track 'Maime'. Beginning with eastern percussion our eyes are torn out so that we can see, the musicians creating a brooding ambience where the shadows hide our deepest fears, then silence, before a maelstrom of discordant noise finally drives any sense of reality from our minds.
Managing to contain fifteen songs within an hour of music gives this album a schizophrenic cut and paste feel, something that is enhanced by the use of thirteen players (including a horn section), allowing each song a chance to utilise a different combination of sounds, creating a wide-ranging and beautifully realised body of work. With the emphasis on rhythm and texture Rollerball have produced their finest work so far, more complex, darker, less structured and a fantastic ride from start to finish.
~ Simon Lewis, Ptolemaic Terrascope

Following a bold, self-described blend of "Tones on Tail, Miles Davis, (and) Califone", Rollerball climb without a rope to polar opposite genres, not really caring if they hang off a ledge (and fall) now and then. The opening bang, "Quench", draws you in, pushing hard into experimental territories with low cello thunder, echo-drenched female vocals, chimes and other otherworldly disturbances. However, just like that, the band launches into a ballad ("Erzulie") that sounds like Fiona Apple tackling Gershwin: sexy vocals soar above heavy piano chords and horns finally explode as the band goes nuts and a cacophony of sampled telephone voices fills the sound field. By the third track ("Fucker"), you'll realize that their liberal approach isn't letting up; you're treated to processed synthetic dumbek feeding back into its own rumbling voice, an organ drone in tow.
As mentioned, Rollerball's need to experiment sometimes outweighs what might be right for the album's continuity. After the trip-hoppy "So This is That?", they mix it up with "Sores", a combination of carnival barking-cum-hoedown style voice (shouting about chicken pox, "blisters and sores, blood and gore / my baby's got..."), fickle sax licks and hyperactive drum machine patterns. "Coburn"'s groovy funk is interrupted by the neo-polka "Ederlezi", which finds a home somewhere between Bartók and nursery rhyme, nonsensical falsettos blasting alongside messy accordion and tuba. The band makes a handful of these uncomfortable shifts, giving the disc a "various artists" aesthetic and negating the flow established by the previous few tracks.
Though the abrupt scene changes disrupt the album's momentum, the songs individually exhibit genuine creativity, attentive songwriting and focused performances. In the same way that it took a while to make it all the way through Tom Waits's eclectic Bone Machine and Beck's ghetto-meets-the Ozarks Odelay, Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause's many parts become more of a cohesive whole with each listen.
~ Dave Madden, Splendid

You can never be quite sure what to expect when there's time for a new release from Portland's Rollerball. There's the air-polluted jazz and fragile folk/chamber explorations of Trail of the Butter Yeti (still their true masterpiece if you ask me) and the poppy and cabaret theatric side of their Silber debut Real Hair. If we go further back in their 11 albums long discography we'll find all sorts of deranged, jazz streaked expeditions, drones, psychedelia, skronking noise-beats laced with samples and there's even some power pop thrown in for good measure. Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause offers a bit of all these styles although it emphasizes on the kind of spacious, fluid and organic jazz no one but these cats ever could do. To call Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause free jazz will give you the wrong idea, but this is truly music that is free from any kind of constraint and is free to wander wherever it wants to go next. It's all fairly melodious and at times even catchy but it's still as much an album about sounds as about songs. All in all another capable and inspiring addition to an already impressive back catalogue.
~ Mats Gustafson, The Broken Face

This is already their 11th album. And I must say it is a hard ball to break. Their music is genre crossing (indie post-)rock with jazz and other elements, with an intelligent, complex developed and matured sound. There is a variety of structures, song orientated, theatre related, freeminded jazz improvisational, with lots of switches and elements of experimenting, hard to describe its varied focus, because it's always somewhere in some mix.
~ Progressive Music

Portland's Rollerball are a schizophrenic bunch - happier exploring every available musical avenue than getting ensnared in creative cul de sacs. Previous albums have seen them try their hand at everything from deranged cosmic jazz and psychedelic blowouts to fragile folk/chamber explorations and even the occasional foray into power pop. Critics might throw the accusation of 'jack of all trades, master of none' at the quintet (for this album they are also joined by a host of guest musicians to augment and extend their palette), but Rollerball handle their material with such aplomb and with a refreshing lack of pretension that each style seems an equal component of their own equation.
Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause showcases the band's proficiency and creative appetite - in fact it serves as both microcosm and primer for Rollerball's 11-album career. Free music and jazz form the foundations for their creations, allowing them to incubate, hatch and prosper. Accordions wheeze, accompanied by wild-eyed drumming and percussive salvos, duelling male-female vocals harmonize over a bed of ambient whispers to create amorphous sound collages. This album's two standout tracks, however, occur when Rollerball take to more conventional shapes. "Erzulie" sounds like the dark gothic cabaret of The Black Heart Procession if they were fronted by ex-Come songstress Thalia Zedek. Elsewhere, "Tambien" captures the magickal air of a Crowly-mass before transforming into a burlesque chant, in praise of unspeakable occult endeavours, singing "Black claims my heart. . . Hands off the moon, its not yours." Darkly beautiful.
It would be easy, of course, for Rollerball to concert all their energies in this direction, churning out melancholic, yet fundamentally cute, pop vignettes. For one it would undoubtedly see them held fast to the bosom of alternative America. But this would be a waste and a pity. The very reasons why Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause is such a pleasurable body of work are its ambition and scope. Without sounding like poor facsimiles of anyone, they manage to navigate vast territories that, if not unchartered, have been rarely undertaken with such persuasiveness.
~ Spencer Grady, Dusted

Onzième album pour cette formation expérimentale américaine et troisième à paraître sur Silber. Rollerball y explore plus que jamais les limites floues entre structure et improvisation, expérimentation et composition, ombre et obscurité, suivant de temps à autre une mélodie hantée puis filant dans des ouvertures free jazz, cabaret noir, psychédéliques, drone ou free. Unique.
~ Derives

Da quando si sono accasati presso l'etichetta americana Silbermedia, i Rollerball non si fermano più. Dopo varie peripezie hanno finalmente trovato in questa label il partner ideale per le loro produzioni. Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause segue quindi gli ultimi due dischi usciti per la Silbermedia (recensione in archivio) e ne conferma pathos e valore. In questa occasione il gruppo americano si presenta in un ensamble allargato a molti dei 'soliti' nomi che affollano le produzioni della band. Accanto al nocciolo centrale costituito dalla mente, Mini Wagonwheel, bassista, dal batterista Gilles e dalle splendide voci di Mae Starr, Amanda Mason Wiles e S. de Leon (anche alle tastiere, sampler, accordian, alto saxophone, tromba, clarinetto e percussioni), ritroviamo così compagni di vecchia data come i 'nostri' Stefania Pedretti, Bruno Dorella e Jacopo Andreini, più altri collaboratori. Questo nuovo disco (dovrebbe essere l'undicesimo se non ce ne siamo persi qualcuno per strada) prosegue sulla scia dei precedenti in un mix di psidechelia, Canterbury sound, jazz, elettronica, folk e trovate originali.
A questo punto la domanda sorge spontanea: perché recensire ogni volta un disco dei Rollerball dal momento che la musica non si discosta poi tanto dalle precedenti uscite? Rispondo a mia volta con una domanda: perché volersi per forza privare di qualcosa che è indubbiamente 'bello'? Per dire qualcosa in più, i Rollerball scrivono da sempre grandi canzoni; ogni brano, per i quali inventano ogni volta un arrangiamento diverso, fa storia a sé; coinvolgono, ammaliano, inquietano, stimolano l'attenzione, in un equilibrio perfetto tra parti strumentali senza cedimenti e timbri di voce che si rincorrono e spiazzano (se ne distinguono almeno tre: la voce angelica e carica di soul di Mae Starr, quella schizofrenica di S. De Leon e quella disturbata di Stefania Perdetti, nonché il raddoppio di Amanda Mason Wiles). Che non si dica un ascolto per soli fans.
~ Alfredo Rastelli, Sands-Zine

Rollerball sono un'istituzione dell'universo indie degli ultimi dieci anni.  Hanno attraversato tutti gli scenari immaginabili per approdare ad una originalissima visione del mondo in cui i generi musicali non esistono più.  È per questo motivo che sembra che cambino pella da un disco all'altro, da un concerto all'altro, quasi da un brano all'altro di uno stresso disco.  Ma non è così, perchè i Rollerball hanno semplicemente abbattuto alcune delle barriere musicali che a tutt'oggi misicisti e semplici ascoltatori creano nelle loro teste.  E lo hanno fatto creando un loro stile originale, riconoscibile ed in continua evoluzione.  Su Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause si presentano come un quintetto (basso, tastiere, percussioni, fisarmonica, voci, batteria, clarinetto, tromba e sassofono) aiutato da un'altra mezza dozzina abbondante di musicisti (trombone, tuba, violoncello, e ancora clarinetto, sassofono, voci e batteria).  Tra cui troviamo Stefania Pedretti (Ovo), Bruno Dorella (Maise) e Jacoppo Andreini, segno tangibile dell'amore dei Rollerball per il Bel Paese.  Rispetto al precedente Behind the Barber, uscito sempre per l'americana Silber e colmo di enfasi jazz, il nuono lavoro sposta la bussola su sonorità più psichedeliche e liquide ("Tipping th Tree," "So This Is That"), quasi a voler rendere omaggio ai grandissimi Gong.  Ed in fatto di anarchia i Rollerball non sono secondi a nessuno.
~ Roberto Mandolini, Losing Today

Catholic Paws, racchiuso in una splendida confezione cartonata disenata da Mae Starr e Shane DeLeon, è l'undicesimo album del combo di Portland (pubblicato dalla Silber comei precedenti Real Hair e Behind the Barber), il più compiuto dai tempi di Trail of the Butter Yeti del 2001.  "Erzulie" e "Quad Four" s;innalzano in un sublime tripudio di fiati, "So This is That?", "Tambien" e "Coburn" sono fluide danze nottune, dolci spirali dalle quali non vorrete uscire mai più.  Il merito è anche dei tanti ospiti dei padroni di casa: il sax di Jacopo Andreini, la tuba di Ben Wright, il clarinetto e trombone di Jamie Smith e Dylan Hinkley dei Dang Head, la voce e la batteria di Stefania Pedrini e Bruno Dorella degli OVO.  Composizione o improvvisazione, canzoni o suoni.  Quandi si parla dei Rollerball, queste diventano inutili sottgliezze.  Loro vogliono soltanto rubarvi il cuore.  Lasciateli fare.
~ Raffaele Zappala, Rockerilla

Solo la splendida confezione che racchiude il nuovo lavoro dei Rollerball fa nascere una strana sensazione di volerlo possedere, ma fermarsi al fattore visivo sarebbe una grave mancanza di rispetto nei confronti di questa sbalorditiva band americana. I Rollerball sono arrivati all'undicesimo album e non sembrano aver perso lo smalto dei giorni migliori.
Già il precedente 'Behind The Barber' ci aveva entusiasmato grazie alla sua carica folle e sperimentale ma con 'Catholic Paws / Chatolic Pause' i nostri si sono superati.
Il nuovo disco è splendido e racchiude ancora una volta l'insolito connubio tra musica sperimentale e psichedelica, free-jazz ed elettronica tutto tinto da venature dark. Difficile poter dire quale sia il loro pubblico e forse avrei potuto capirlo nel loro recente passaggio italiano, ma ahimé me li sono persi.
Sicuramente ci troviamo innanzi ad un sound difficilmente catalogabile e per certi versi indigesto, ma al contempo estremamente fantasioso ed elitario. Ce ne fossero band come i Rollerball! Nel frattempo teniamoci stretti questi cinque ragazzi di Portland!
~ Lux, Kronic                                                                                                                     

Bubble-wrapped in dub textures, a dense sound that seems to exhale and inhale in a variety of ways. In through the sitar, out through the accordion…in through the electronic iron lung, out through the trumpet. Time spent in mixing and maximimizing the inputs of the 16 listed contributors has muddied the tracks somewhat to a sonic equivalent of brown, but brownian music may just be this year's techno black. I actually dug the spikes and clashes of Real Hair more, but this is a murky, surprisingly beaty album at times with a lot of hues to it. At its best it approaches a sort of Art Ensemble of Electronica. The abundance of synthesizers here is never smart-bomb precise, never cold and calculated, but warm and more arbitrary. The vocals are more confident and torchy when they appear, which is not often enough! "Slits Arandas" is one hell of a journey with prominent hornplay.  "Autotelic" ends just as its seems ready to launch into an interesting guitar-led phase. I'm unsure how many of the sweet 16 still live in the same house in Portland, OR but it must be a comfy place. The more you listen to this, the more you will feel at home with it.
~ Thurston Hunger, KFJC

Playing avant-garde music is a tough gig: the fanbase is limited, radio play is doubtful and you're almost certainly going to need a full-time job to make ends meet. Experimental music isn't created with rock stardom in mind. Chicks don't fling themselves on you when you mention that you're a composer. Kids don't line up for your autograph. Arenas don't sell out for one of your live performances. Experimental music is made by individuals who love music, or more often simply love sound, and have a need to explore its limitless potential in the most unusual of ways.
With Behind the Barber, Rollerball explores the unusual but fitting relationship between skronky jazz and droning experimentation. They toy with dub and funk along the way, as well as occasional nods to melodic pop, demonstrating their impressive musicianship and versatility.
The wonderful thing about Behind the Barber is its cohesiveness and consistency. Whether you're spacing out to droning opener "Do the Slim Jim" or bobbing your head to the percussion-heavy electro-pop of "Burning Light (Nudge Rub)", the listening experience makes sense. This isn't one of those far-flung albums that desperately strains to string together a series of divergent genres. Barber is much more involved, twisting genres inside-out as it makes unexpected partners out of differing styles.
"The Guarantee" blasts off into outer-space, recalling Flying Saucer Attack without all the excessively noisy baggage that regularly plagued that band's recordings. Unidentifiable metallic monsters peer from between the towering drones, and occasional electronic howls pierce the murky atmosphere. I'm usually miffed by sprawling, monotonal compositions, but Rollerball keeps things engaging here without resorting to mind-boggling complexities or impossible-to-count tempos.
The mysterious Portland-based outfit make it sound effortless as they tiptoes between genres. On "Starling (Aleph Dub)", Rollerball employ a bit of old-fashioned knob twiddling, and Mae Starr's voice reverberates like many of your favorite dub masters; a gaggle of horns can be heard in the distance as sparse drumming lays out a classic dub beat. "Quiela (Ovo Sub)" features Italian electro-maestros Ovo, who also split a disc with Rollerball in 2002. "Quiela" sounds like an '80s video game console gone haywire, with blips, bleeps and electro-arpeggios creating an extraordinary cacophony. It's probably the furthest-reaching cut of the batch, demonstrating that Rollerball's aural potential hath no boundaries.
The band is at its most bizarre on "Chi toWN Cub". This cut crinkles and cracks through an arrhythmic mixture of backmasked recordings and sloping synthesizers, eventually settling on a drone that slowly spirals into a wall of sound. It's demanding, but doesn't ruthlessly exploit your senses.
The standout piece here is the 16 minute "Slits Arandas". Amanda Mason Wiles and S DeLeon S show off an expressive arsenal of brass chops that dance between free jazz and momentous sheets of sound. Glorious female vocals give the horn players a brief interlude, then explode into a wailing skronk-fest -- a wild departure from the brooding experimental drones. Could this really be the same Rollerball, or has Archie Shepp decided to make a guest sax appearance? It's an intense and magical experience; you'll want to shove life's everyday trials aside and enjoy its all-too-brief out-of-body rollercoaster ride again and again.
When was the last time you listened to something experimental, enjoyed it and understood it? I'm usually left to contemplate what just abused my eardrums, with little consideration for whether the music actually meant something. Unlike many other experimental albums, Behind the Barber won't bore you with too much drone or leave you cringing in anticipation of your next aural flogging; Rollerball has decisive control over its music and presents it in an interesting way. They'll lull you into a state of relaxation, but inject appropriate doses of musical excitement along the way. It's good to hear them returning to form after almost dropping off the map.
~ Andrew Magilow, Splendid

Rollerball is an unusual band with a unique sound that's hard to pin down. Blending elements of free-jazz, funk, trip-hop, ambient, and Latin music wrapped in a heavily layered and experimental package, Behind the Barber, Rollerball's tenth album, is an intriguing listen. Actually, it's hard not to be intrigued by an album where the instrument credits range from horns to sitar to sharp metal. Often melodic and dissonant at the same time, Behind the Barber is a psychedelic blend of the coherent and the abstract, a meeting point between organic and electronic where little is predictable.
I think it's fairly obvious from my description of the album's sound that the 11 tracks found here have a fairly large stylistic range. While the band is obviously rooted in experimentation and improvisation, the album finds cohesion in more straightforward, concrete offerings like the reverb drenched dub jam and smooth female vocals of "Starling (Aleph Dub)" and the almost erotic, somewhat PJ Harvey-esque female vocals and repetitive droning accordion of "Chi Town Club". Other tracks like "Do the Slim Jim" and the ambient processed sounds and sparse melodic content of "Autotelic" counter the album's more mainstream offerings by diving headfirst into more abstract experimental jam territory. Most of the disc's other tracks fall somewhere in between or bounce back and forth. For instance, "Slits Arandas" is a 16 minute piece with sporadic improvised jams held together by a recurring Latin-infused smoky late night club core. The album's more mainstream (and more easily digestible) tracks prove to be the most memorable at first for obvious reasons. However, repeated listening will allow the listener to absorb the album's more abstract side, proving the album to be a very solid as a whole.
While Behind the Barber is probably not for those that like their music straightforward and simple, listeners that like challenging albums and the subsequent rewards that come with such works will find this to be a release that's both unique and consistently excellent. It's a sometimes odd but always interesting slice of experimental/free-jazz/ambient/dub psychedelia that will likely make a big impression on those adventurous enough to give it a listen.
~ Joshua Heinrich, Grave Concerns

I once said that Portland's Rollerball is all about organics, texture and surprisingly sonic gestures. Add to all this the occasional drone, samples, funky beats and deep audio experimentation and you know we're in for an adventurous jazz listen. This is jazz for the ones who enjoy starting at the sky, exploring the space from a comfortable distance. That's still very much the case on Behind the Barber (their tenth album and second for Silber), which somehow manages to bind together the chilly jazz and fragile folk/chamber explorations of Trail of the Butter Yeti (Road Cone) with the more poppy and cabaret theatric side of their Silber debut. The combination of the band's most recent characteristics is simply superb and one can't help but to be stunned by how something so genuinely experimental and genre-bending also can be so spacious and packed with grooves. The thing I enjoy the most is possibly when the band takes a right down free jazz street. But don't let this fool you to believe that you're in for some extreme manifestations along the lines of Ayler or Brötzmann, no this is fluid free-jazz spaciousness that is much more about textures and fragmentized world views than walls of noise. Not that we don't get the occasional wailing horn but they're just there to color the ornamental whole with yet another beautiful nuance. This criminally overlooked combo deserves a seat right next to Jackie-O Motherfucker on the bus to the psych/free jazz heavens.
~ Mats Gustafson, The Broken Face

The tenth album from this Portland, Oregon outfit is one of their finest moments.  Every track has been recorded/mixed, and edited by different parties, and features guests like; Italian noise exporters OVO, electronics whizz Nudge, and Jef Brown of Jackie-O Motherfucker, among others. The first track sounds like a very bizarre orchestra tuning up for almost five minutes. The second track is sixteen minutes of free floating jazz atmospherics that wanders through a cluster of tiny Albert Aylers all asking questions, while ultimately sounding more like Sun Ra and Arkestra in a mellow groove with cool minimal female vocals. The third track is a quiet shifting drone with blurred spoken samples and uneasy footing. The fourth is a surreal combination of shifting tempos, cetacean languages, drooling electronic fringe, and thrumming bass. The fifth is a deeply dubwise remix of "Starling" and it's spooky female vocal. There are places where this could slip easily into any open minded jazz format, and others where it sounds like John Cage scratching himself with a rake underwater. Wildly diverse sounds; but it's all a consistently listenable and highly transportational experience.
~ George Parsons, Dream Magazine

Rollerball's excellent Trail of the Butter Yeti, from 2001, was an odd and spiky mix of ornate pop and experimental textures, sounding like a jazzier Nurse With Wound. Unfortunately, the record never really caught on and the group seemed to vanish once the Portland-based Road Cone Records closed up shop. Now after a few years of inactivity, Rollerball have found a new home on Silber Media, and Behind the Barber is their second release within the space of a few months. Their first album on Silber, Real Hair, found the group in unexpectedly accessible form, but despite a few strong tunes it was a somewhat unexciting return. Thankfully, Behind the Barber is more than enough excuse to

here is a review for our self titled Wallace records release:

http://thebrokenface.blogspotcom/

this was posted on march29,07

go there to see........wallacerecords.com