COVENTRY: Just Dropped In

Saturday 10th June, 2023

6:30pm

Event information

Sink or Swim presents: Rodney Cromwell + Roman Angelos

From Catford in South London, Rodney Cromwell is the electronic project of Adam Cresswell, founding member of indie-folktronica act Saloon who recorded three LPs and three BBC sessions, and was one half of acclaimed electronic two-piece Arthur & Martha.

Rodney Cromwell's debut album 'Age of Anxiety’ combined danceable rhythms with the chimes of toy instruments, and the bleeps and whistles of retro synths. It explored themes such as paranoia, despair, love, loss and depression while retaining an upbeat pop sensibility. The follow-up EP, 'Rodney's English Disco,' was released in 2018 and took his analogue synth sound in an often bleaker new direction. 2022 finally saw the release of a full second album, 'Memory Box,' which fused a European synthpop sensibility with a world of magical realism. Inspired as much by the literature of Alice in Wonderland, Franz Kafka and Anna Kavan as by its musical influences, the sonic pallet of 'Memory Box' is rich, colourful, often surprising and utterly unique

Rodney Cromwell has been featured by a wealth of publications including NME, Electronic Sound, Huffington Post, Paste, Shindig!, Louder Than War, The Big Takeover, Magic RPM, the Bandcamp homepage and Mobile Musician magazine who featured him as their cover star. He has had national radio play in Japan, Finland, Germany and multiple spins on RTE in Ireland, on BBC 6 Music in the UK and RNE3 in Spain for whom he recorded a live session. He has twice featured in the Official Festive 50 on Dandelion Radio (with 'Barry Was An Arms Dealer' and 'Memory Box'). He was named 'Most Promising New Act' by ElectricityClub.co.uk and both albums were named in the albums of the year lists of Electronic Sound magazine (in 2015 & 2022) for who he also recorded a live session.

Live he has supported acts including Pram, Marsheaux, Death & Vanilla, Rowetta, Steve Davis, A Flock of Seagulls and in 2022 he toured with Blancmange. He has played Festivals including Threshold, Indietracks and Madrid Popfest.

In Summer 2023 Rodney will be making his first full UK headline tour and releasing a new single - the live favourite - 'Exercise Class.'

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The project of Roman Angelos was invented as a vehicle for New York's Rich Bennett to explore his obsession with library recordings of the 60's and 70s. Beyond the world of library electronica, Rich has been involved in a diverse group of musical projects, including the newly reunited outsider/60s proto-punk group The Shaggs and Brazilian funk group Limoncello.

The debut album 'Spacetronic Lunchbox' hearkens back to that era, blending early electronica, exotica, muzak and video game music. Boasting 11 songs in 10 minutes, the albums is a burst of sonic nostalgia that is original and (light) entertaining in its own right. 'Spacetronic Lunchbox' was released in March 2020 with a limited edition clear vinyl lathe cut, available Happy Robots and with a worldwide digital release through Cargo Distribution. The record was featured by Shindig, Electronic Sound Magazine, The Electricity Club with radio play including that by Bob Fischer on BBC Radio Tees and Cerys Matthews and Stewart Maconie's Freak Zone on BBC Radio 6 Music.

Rich has also worked as a mixing engineer and/or producer with many Happy Robots artists including Sinosa, Alice Hubble, Morgane Lhote (ex-Stereolab)'s project Hologram Teen and Rodney Cromwell producing the album 'Memory Box'.

The second Roman Angelos album 'Music for Underwater Supermarkets' was released on 28th January 2022. Described by Amplify Music Magazine as "fluid and meditative, yet so catchy – taking the best concept of elevator music to new lounge-loving heights". The album was played on BBC6 Music by Cerys Matthews and on Stewart Maconie's Freakshow. It is available to order now from our Bandcamp.