Julia Bloop - Roland Throop (2017)

Roland Throop' is the second cassette from Brooklyn-based Julia Bloop, following a debut on Rotifer Cassettes -- the last tape they launched before a year-long hiatus. Both this and the debut, wonderfully named 'Bllop,' rely on meticulously arranged loops and effects. The material here was gathered haphazardly though, while living out a dreary sublet overlooking a barren concrete courtyard, "I drank wine, watched movies, listened to the radio, and was never quite sure what sounds I’d find on my 4-track when I woke up the next morning." Though both albums are more than adequate just as reveries, despite its more dreamlike passages 'Roland Throop' has a distinct emotional charge throughout. That atmosphere comes across perfectly in the opener "I Gotta Get Outta This Place," a strain of melancholia beautifully drawn out and recast elsewhere into shades of loneliness, as with "Too Many Ghosts," or ambling epiphanies like "That Dracula" and "Tenaya."

"Bloop creates a dreamlike atmosphere by cleverly juggling relaxed percussive loops, spoken word samples and delicate melodies, resulting in a calm, melodic microcosm that sounds like a clever quote of late 90’s Ninja Tune and their downtempo classics." -Weed Temple