Strobe
Bandname
Strobe
Country
UK
Musicstyle
Space Rock • Kraut Rock
Contact
MITCH g, vcls
LOZ g
JOHN g
ANDY PEARCE b
SIMON LOVELACE drms
BEN b
RUPERT drms, perc
ANDREW b
NEAL b
 3 Reviews / 1 Link
I have never before or since seen or heard such a lacklustre group of musicians. Their recorded work strongly reflects the sheer boredom you will encounter should you ever choose to see them live, as I recently did in Hertfordshire, UK. Too many guitarists and not enough song ideas. Too many egos competing for the spotlight but precious little talent. It looks like Loz Reilly only knows one chord - but by god does he know how to keep on playing it over and over again. Balding Kraut-Rock for the sick and the lost. Charles Joyce

‘Strobe’s ‘maya' album became one of my favourite album’s of 1993, so I was looking forward to hearing the follow up. On here, they again produce the powerful aurally addictive adrenalin rush of ‘Maya’, but elsewhere they explore other styles, further extending the boundaries of their sound. Swirling psychedelic space rock intertwines with free-form experimentation combining with eerie, breathless vocals and ambient guitars to produce compositions of hypnotic flowing rhythm and blissfully repetitive melody. Housed in a magnificent op-art cover their work is strikingly innovative.
As I was laying out this page of reviews a copy of the newly re-released first Strobe album See Beyond the Sun (Mystic Stones Records, Rune CD 7) arrived so I thought that I would review that here too. full review

"Apologies to Charles Joyce (see review) but the 'Wham' tribute band he turned up to review live had to be called off at the last minute so he was forced to contribute his extraordinary 'jounalistic insights' into Strobe instead. Must have been a nightmare for you Charlie...still never mind eh!!!"
Mitch - Strobe 

Bio from Borderlinebooks
Records:
Alienation
Record ID: 252
Label
Fuofo Records
Released
1997
Time (minutes)
46
Tracks
9
Format
CD • LP ?
Musicstyle
Space Rock
 2 Reviews
Poor production on one or two tracks diminishes what is an excellent range of material. 'Mask', 'Stasis' and 'Fix' are as good as anything Strobe have produced. Likewise "Obsession' an almost 'goth' like slice of heavy psychedelic rock and "Chameleon Earth' with its swirling hypnotic guitar sound. Maybe a couple of tracks just let it down a little but this is a good album! 

‘Mask’ is an intricately crafted guitar masterpiece...the vocals only serving to haunt while the guitars sing, slide and soar leaving you in a semi-hypnotic trance wondering just how the fuck they created that sound. ‘Fix’...is reminiscent of the Velvet Underground with guitars that scuttle and then come back at you, the vocals again playing a submissive role. Strobe don’t neglect vocals, they are there to add poignancy in the way that Loop used to understate their singing. ‘Stasis’ is a progression of the ‘Maya’ sound, held together by a repetitive rhythm, a monotone, prowling bass and guitars pining in the background. Strobe seem to have found a formula and it’s all about rhythms, guitar effects and causing altered states of mind without using drugs, though if you put both together you full review

The circle never ends
Record ID: 251
Label
Debris Records
Released
1994
Time (minutes)
57
Tracks
7
Format
CD • LP ?
Musicstyle
Space Rock
 6 Reviews
This is Strobe's best space rock album! Only 'The Shining Path' 2001 which is extremenly rare is as stong an album. Highlights include 'The Circle Never Ends' , 'Perihelion' and 'Listen (To This Voice of Reason)' but the trip is consistenty good throughout. For pure 'mindfuck music' this is the one!! 

This is Strobe's best space rock album! Only 'The Shining Path' 2001 which is extremenly rare is as strong an album. Highlights include 'The Circle Never Ends' , 'Perihelion' and 'Listen (To This Voice of Reason)' but the trip is consistenty good throughout. For pure 'mindfuck music' this is the one!! 

This is Strobe's best space rock album! Only 'The Shining Path' 2001 which is extremenly rare is as strong an album. Highlights include 'The Circle Never Ends' , 'Perihelion' and 'Listen (To This Voice of Reason)' but the trip is consistenty good throughout. For pure 'mindfuck music' this is the one!! 

‘Whether locked into a groove or spiralling out into hyperspace, Strobe’s guitars drill holes into your psyche. Strobe’s enveloping world of cosmic headfuck guitars could be the sound of contemporary rock in the ‘90’s.’
Metal Hammer (UK) 1994
 

‘Strobe may have made an important album careerwise, an LP that could attract a larger audience than they have got so far. 'The Circle Never Ends' sounds mature enough to make them grow above the status of ‘underground’ band. A fine psychedelic album. Recommended.’
Crohinga Well (Belgium)
 

‘Strobe are a phenomenon. Their music is raw spacerock. It sounds heavy without being ‘heavy metal’ and gloomy without being ‘goth’. Three(!) guitarists generate swirling waves of guitar effects and boomily meditative riffs.’
'My Way’, German magazine 

Maya
Record ID: 507
Label
Fuofo Records
Released
1992
Time (minutes)
44
Tracks
7
Format
CD ? • LP
Musicstyle
Space Rock
 3 Reviews
Strobe's 'Krautrock' album gets 'heavier' as it goes along culminating in "Pain Or Pleasure' with some truly 'hardcore' guitar sounds. Highlights include the aboriginal mantra 'Dreamtime' and the space rock of 'Vicious Circle'. 'Stoned' tracks like 'Nameless Day 1' show this to be an album of extremes, there are no hit singles on 'Maya'! 

‘It’s a sound that’s never consummated, the music of desire without a destination. Strobe play as if there were no tomorrow.’
Melody Maker (UK) 1992
 

‘maya recalls the grey cloudburst moods of New Order’s Movement....the album is quintessentially pretty poison for a quintessentially pretty death.’
College Music Journal (US)
 

See beyond the sun
Record ID: 250
Label
Mystic Stones
Released
1991
Time (minutes)
51
Tracks
7
Format
CD • LP ?
Musicstyle
Space Rock
 3 Reviews
Maybe not as consistently good as 'The Circle Never Ends' this album has some stand out tracks, notably the epic 'See Beyond The Sun', the atmospheric 'Infinte Eye' and the huge wall of sound of 'Spiral'. This album continues where 'Loop' ended its experiments in psychedelic rock and is highly recommended! 

Strobe
retread a no-man’s land between "Strobe retread a no-man's land between Loop/Hawkwind experimentation and Cure-style catharsis....Strobe don't seem tied down by anything, the three guitars soar, the sound is full, dynamic and masterful...."
Melody Maker 1991
 

"You can compare the extraordinary underground music of Strobe to the slow cooking of exotic ingredients....'See Beyond the Sun' stimulates the brain with alien dance rhythms in such songs as 'Spiral', 'The Cry', 'Frozen Hate' and 'Infinite Eye'..... The Cure's Pornography is brought to mind. Listen to "Desert Storm";...inspired by all the unfortunate events of the Gulf War. The sound of helicopter rotor blades presents us with the final option. This album is a powerful and enduring psychedelic manifesto....."
Rockerilla - Italy's No.1 rock magazine
 


 

 
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