Fever

Combining the guitar bliss of such bands as Windy & Carl with the experimental no wave sensibilities of U.S. Maple, Rope offers an amazing piece of electro-acoustic material primed for an avant audience. The four tracks of this debut EP move from the metallic spires and plodding bass of "Unknown Source of Egoism" to the ghost-whispered "Imagination of Rhythm" as if one elongated piece or a drone-based concerto. Beats are something Rope distinctly lacks; when Prsemyslaw Drazek's guitar accidentally establishes a pattern it is fractured, displaced, and ultimately destroyed not so much with a psychedelic fade-out as a shrill explosion. Robert Iwanik claims to have never heard Nick Cave or Michael Gira prior to this recording, but the phrasing and consciously spooky techniques are quite similar.