As it happens, the new Rotifer album "Coach Number 12 of 11" has just come out in Austria, Germany (what about Switzerland?) and the Benelux countries (with the UK and US to follow in the spring, if everything goes to plan... ).
It's the most straight-forward, danceable, hummable thing I've done so far, the kind of record I would have wanted to make before I knew how to.
Darren Hayman wrote the liner notes:
"Robert Rotifer claims to be Austrian, but he’s lying through his teeth. Robert Rotifer is English, as English as Lacoste, as English as Rickenbacker guitars, as English as Chicken Tikka Masala. Robert writes in his second language better than I think in my first.
I’m 37, and I don’t really know how to make friends anymore. You can’t say ‘Do you want to come round my house to play?’. I guess I’ve met Robert maybe ten times in ten years. The last time was in his kitchen and his wife, Judith, made Leek and Fennel soup. So I guess we might be friends now. Robert lives in a very old English house, in a very old English town. What’s he trying to prove?
It’s all about travel with Robert. He commutes from Canterbury to London, and sometimes from London to Vienna. He seems to find travelling difficult too. He worries if he’s on the right train carriage, especially when the announcement tells him he’s on coach twelve of eleven.
I spent a whole evening watching Battlestar Galactica while Robert kept texting me from a three-hour traffic jam in Bexleyheath. I spent four hours in congestion with him on the M11. The man’s a jinx. The planes and motorways do get him home eventually. Robert writes songs about home and travel. He writes about things close to him and the things that drag him away.
There is a real need for unknown songwriters, its Robert’s tough luck that he isn’t more popular, but it’s our good fortune. We need the undiscovered to write songs about trains and kitchen designers for us. Successful artists don’t tend to do that as much.
Robert is good too, very good. I might even say he’s one of the best Kent based Austrian songwriters in the business and I know a few."
Let's just say I prefer Perrys, Fenders and Korma, but apart from that he's spot on.
dbl7", 1996
CD, 2001
7", 2002
CD, 2004
CD, 2006
CD, 2008
In the meantime, you could also go to my proper website www.robertrotifer.co.uk which has a handy album player, some old songs, diary entries, videos and more.
For a physical copy of the album best go to wohnzimmer shop or maybe amazon or roughtrade.com.
By now you should also be able to buy an mp3 approximation of the new album online from your platform of choice. Sorry it took so long to sort this out!
Finally, a few generous quotes on 2006's "Before the Water Wars":
"I don't understand how, with English as a second language, Robert Rotifer writes better lyrics than most English songwriters including myself. (Of course, I'd never let him know this). Before The Water Wars is an absolutely charming album that stands comfortably alongside anything by Richard Hawley. Great musical moments, really confident vocals and those lyrics: 'Sit down here with me boy / look at my face / I've got more chins than you've got balls...' I wish I'd written that. (But don't tell Robert.)" - Eric Goulden aka Wreckless Eric
"You can hear The Fear in this beautiful record. To me this sounds like Belle & Sebastian in Ziggy outfits. A wonderful sixites country melody, and in the background five gay English cowboys blowing their hunting horns (I might have watched too much Brokeback Mountain). My favourite song on the record is 'Schengenländer Die!' I think I'm going to cry. That poor Schengenländer, his game is up. The swine!" - Nick McCarthy, Franz Ferdinand
"Here we have the fantastic new long player from Vienna's finest singer-songwriter Robert Rotifer. It was recorded in (almost) 24 hours, Robert Rotifer's third album shows that it's crafted by someone who's got the ear, the brains, the heart and the fingers of a great songwriter. This is a great album." -
Rough Trade Record Shop
Die Fans sind sehr wichtig. Danke das wir jetzt die guten freunde sind. Alle sollen uns adden und uns unter ihre topfreunde geben damit wir von allen gesehen werden an.ale. Über 7 monate sind wir jetzt auf my space und haben es noch nicht geschaft reich und stars zu werden. Wir wollen auf mtv und wissen das wir die besten sind. Schaut mal unsere videos und hört unsere musik die ist so geil das man eine Erektion bekommt. Danke euer afterschädl, F.B.,P.P. Wir spielen auch manchmal Live,,, nur WO wissen wir nicht, sagt es uns
DIESER Samstag; ab 20 Uhr. DER Abend des Sommers. FÜNF Bands, eine Dj-ne.
Nach etlichen mitunter sehr exzentrischen Solo-Auftritten im Laufe des letzten halben Jahres ist es diesen Samstag soweit. Der Nino Aus Wien stellt sich zum ersten mal mit einer Begleit-Band auf eine Bühne, im Rahmen eines Problembären-Clubs… hochkarätige Unterstützung kommt von illustren Herrschaften wie Liger, Unding, Smuggle Goods Into The Country und Poly Kommune! Dj-ane wird die Theodora sein; ein Name der für gepflegten Indie- und Tweepop stehen sollte...
Man moechte meinen, dass in CCTV-country eine halbwegs ordentliche (verstaendliche) Telephonueberwachung moeglich sein sollte!!! ...das war aber trotzdem ein grossartiges Weller Interview! So schad' ums Solid Bond Studio...
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