Dean Roberts
Archive Fever - New Zealand Underground Sound in Fanzine Interviews 1991–1999
Bomb! A book collecting interviews, artwork and texts of New Zealand underground sound artists from fanzines in the years 1991-1999. Collected by Noel Meek. Texts by Noel Meek, Bruce Russell, Seymour Glass (Bananafish) and Nick Cain (Opprobrium). Cover illustration by Stefan Neville (Pumice).308 pages, format: 18 x 24 cmInterviews with: Alastair Galbraith, A Handful Of Dust, Omit, Bruce Russell, Gate, Surface Of The Earth, Sandoz Lab Technicians, The Dead C, Witcyst , Roy Montgomery, Dadamah De…
May 99
Tip! Black vinyl, with silkscreen and insert. In the spring of 1999, Charles Curtis, Alan Licht, and Dean Roberts brought an unconventional mix of drone, improvisation, and experimental rock on an eleven-stop tour of Europe. The concept was straightforward, yet novel: each night, they would improvise a single piece while sustained sine waves played for the duration of the concert. May 99, culled from three shorter pieces recorded for a radio program at Amsterdam’s VPRO near the end of the tour, …
Not Fire
Not Fire is the first album from Berlin-based songwriter Dean Roberts in 12 years, and his comeback arrives during apocalyptic times. It’s not an album about someone who’s found hope or love despite everything; Roberts sounds exhausted, and his album is as ugly and as bleak as life often is. For those who’ve been in the pits and succumbed to self-destructive nihilism, Not Fire is a reminder of how hellish it all can be.
Sonically, Not Fire is murky and battered and melancholy. Guitars clang ince…
Aluminium
It's onward, ever onward for New Zealand's foremost guitar experimentalist, Dean Roberts. Before you know it, he'll be as ubiquitous as Thurston Moore, a New Music gadfly gatecrashing every weird feast going. The latest outpost in a transition from lo-fi humstrum to Destination Unknown sees Roberts shacked up with avant-Austrian Werner Dafeldecker bassist in Improv group Polwechsel.Expect: grinchy crackling, like the amplified sound of grit disintegrating. Imagine: bric-a-brac, debris, splinters…