TRAGICOMEDIES

As both singer-songwriter and electronic musician, the sound on Rudi Zygadlo's new album 'Tragicomedies' defies easy categorisation and pigeonholing. His debut, 2010's 'Great Western Laymen' (Planet Mu) took the fundamentals of Dubstep to a point previously unheard, amalgamating off-kilter influences like choral music and Frank Zappa into the mix, opening the ground for the inevitable fusion of Dubstep and song that was to follow from many artists. Wilfully perverse as ever, Rudi took his second album 'Tragicomedies' on a different trajectory, dumping the Dubstep chassis, while leaving its faint traces and treatments, jump cuts and edits. 'Tragicomedies' is a puzzling, romantic and emotionally open album, cerebral, yet poppy and direct, weaving from woody, folky arrangements to doo-wop and the elegant structures and motifs of classical music in an unforced and playful way. The album opens with a lyrical reminder of past love - the woozy pitchy piano ballad of 'Kopernikuss', which is swiftly followed by 'Melpomene', where the piano vamps reach a crescendo while Rudi sings of his lost love. By the time we reach the album closer it's clear Zygadlo has been operating in a musical zone unique to himself, with repetition of the classical Minimalist replacing some of the Dubstep-inspired structure of his past as just one key aspect of this bold album. Listen more closely and you'll detect echoes of a broad range of music including Laurie Anderson, Raymond Scott, Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares, Alfred Schnittke, John Zorn, Bach, Prince and much more. - but what's most striking is how Rudi's twisted take on pop has a distinctly 2012 feel to it. The music and the lyrics of each song burst at the seams with a sense of now. This is music pouring out of Rudi Zygadlo in the most natural way possible. Full of emotion, life and living. Sensationally so.[cargo]