Cologne based producer Marius Lauber, who goes by the name Roosevelt, released his debut 4-song EP last month and this week published a video for the new single, “Montreal”.
The EP is currently drowning in much-deserved praise. It was released by Greco-Roman, the label that brought us Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and Disclosure and is partly run by Joe Goddard from Hot Chip, so you know electronic dance-pop is the order of the day. The title track, “Elliot”, is a bit of melancholy disco with gauzy synths washing over an infectious funky baseline that has drawn comparisons to Caribou’s Odessa – not bad company at all in my opinion.
The video for “Montreal” is directed by Roosevelt himself. The song has a much more traditional funky back-beat, and the video captures the feel of early 80s self-made videos, complete with superimposed images and cheesy VHS effects. Even the instruments they’re playing in the clip look like they were taken from another era. This retro style can’t disguise the modern sound, however. His influences may be in the past, but his wistful electronica, with it’s hazy guitars and twinkling synths, is very now.
Download Elliot on iTunes or Amazon, or stream it on Spotify. (He also appears on the Greco-Roman compilation, We Make Colorful Music Because We Dance In The Dark). If you’re in Europe, catch Roosevelt on his fall tour – dates are on his Facebook page.