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They’ve already got attention at the end of 2008 with experimental Brasilian sounds of abstract contemporary prog-psych rock soundtrack of the self-titled Rabotnik that was originally released through Rio de Janeiro’s independent label Bolacha Discos.

So this is their second release and they are still in the realms of the cinematic soundtrack al la Morricone, Barry and Mancini but then, not like Gianmaro Liguori as Rabotnik are guided by electronic experimentation and lead by the guitar, synth, keyboard and sampling skills of founding members Eduardo Manso and Estevão Casé (both members of Far Out’s Binario).

The album concentrates on electronic experimentation with samples dominating the opener ‘Contragotas’ and ‘Jonas’ so much so that both could equally have been a part of any Unsafe show whilst the track ‘JC Superstar’ with added acoustic guitar and 60s garage band fuzz box is one for the leftfield beat junkies. And for those to the left of that, the minimal ‘Tedio’ is a bit of a dublab In The Loop style grower.

With the instrumental elements of Zappa, Beefheart and Robert Wyatt influencing Lounge Ass as much as say a modern Joy Division, Autrechre or at the extreme Tarantino, it’s a deep mix but the rockin’ tracks are ‘DDP’, the warped ‘Las Vegas’ and the twisted horror movie of the title track.

Current favourite is the spaceways sub jazz impro morse code translator of ‘Radiodeluxe’ and the equally impressive is the dreamy ‘Sentinela’ that could have found a place on Leo Abrahams’ The Grape And The Grain (otherwise two totally dissimilar albums). The last track, ‘75’ is a strange mix of the elements of both ‘Radiodeluxe’ and ‘Sentinela’ thus proving how experimental these lot are.

So as Binario are an odd mix of Latin-prog-rock, the Rabotnik off-spring adds more electronics, a touch of classical, impro-jazz, instrumental hip-hop and is equally obsessed with the visual performance; the live how includes banks of plasma TVs and 3 videographists! Since forming in 2004, they’ve provided soundtracks to TV shows, for the dance group ‘NoBodyNeverMind’ and a Rio Fashion Week show in 2005 in addition to normal gigs.

So don’t be expecting anything like the labels other current release, Far Out Strictly Samba but they do say “The eye-trick artwork is almost as good as the music”, lets get it right, the artwork is an indication of how good the music is, the music is much better.

Reviewed: Rabotnik - Lounge Ass (Far Out Recordings) Cat. No: FARODIG121 Release date: 16th February 2009
Tracklisting:
1 Contragotas (4:42)
2 DDP (4:47)
3 JC Superstar (4:01)
4 Jonas (3:15)
5 Las Vegas (3:52)
6 Lounge Ass (3:39)
7 Radiodeluxe (5:00)
8 Sentinela (3:58)
9 Tedio (6:39)
10 75 (4:00)

Links
www.myspace.com/rabotnikrabotnik
Rabotnik Live: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=g1pYormsw5o
www.last.fm/music/Rabotnik
www.faroutrecordings.com
www.myspace.com/faroutrecordings
www.archive.org/details/clinicalarchives
www.myspace.com/clinicalarchives