Kelly Rossum - Electropolis Reviews

Electropolis is a band beyond genre, performing post-apocalypse tunes you can dance to, a group of highly talented musicians with imagination who throw away conventions without letting go of their audience. Electropolis is Michael Ferrier on saxophone and electronics, Steve Roehm on drums and percussion, Kelly Rossum on trumpet and electronics, and Brian Roessler on bass who has replaced Michael O'Brien who played on the CD, but has moved on to the Big Apple.

Their eponymous CD features a dozen original composed and improvised tunes. The only song on here I had heard before was Kelly Rossum's 'Lead Soldiers' which he has also performed with his quintet. Other tunes were penned by Michael O'Brien, Michael Ferrier, and collectively by the entire ensemble.

The fuzzy sounds of electro sax and electro-trumpet add an otherworldly feel to the music produced by this inventive band. Think of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and Jack Johnson sessions and throw in some Medeski, Martin and Wood. Add some trip-hop, funk, punk. Now throw away the keyboards and guitar. This is an eclectic mix of sounds that seems vaguely familiar like a half forgotten dream. The sound is dark, dense and eerie. Electropolis has provided a live soundtrack to the silent masterpieces "Metropolis," and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", and their music is well suited to these surreal and fantastic films.

Live music was almost always used with silent film in its hey-day. In the 80's, I attended a concert where the Minnesota Orchestra revived and performed the score to accompany a screening of the Russian classic "Battleship Potemkin" at Orchestra hall. If you've never had a chance to experience film with live music, on February 19th Electropolis will be performing at the Southern Theater providing a living, breathing soundtrack to a screening of Fritz Lang's 1927 silent masterpiece "Metropolis."

Is it jazz? I don't know how to categorize it, but Duke Ellington once said that there were only two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. This is good music. It contains elements of jazz, and punk, and other things with odd sounds and toe-tapping rhythms. This is not dinner music, it is music that demands your attention and rewards you when you give it.



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