Originally published on yourlastrites.com in October 2005. Written by Erik Thomas.

I hate to bring the metal throes of this website to a screeching halt, but this odd little album found its way into my stack and review it I must. Is it metal? Debatable. Should it be reviewed here? Arguable. Do I enjoy it? Somewhat. Is this one of the oddest and hardest albums I’ve ever had to review? You fucking bet.

The only vogue point of reference I can throw out here to at least try and give you some idea as to Chromelodeon’s odd sound is an instrumental Estradasphere, maybe mixed with the The Doors, The Mass and Nintendo game music. Heart of Sawdust is composed of six unnamed movements that flow into each other in one undulating, accordion based, synth pop, orchestral combo that’s sure to please users of illicit substances. At times it comes across like a 70s B movie horror soundtrack with guitars and an accordion. Obviously with such a quirky style and delivery, Heart of Sawdust isn’t an album of songs or moments, but more of an atmospheric trip into psychedelia and a kaleidoscope of swirling sounds that confound confuse and sometimes amuse.

Admittedly the first two ‘songs’ did little for me, with the second song serving as a sort of instrumental rock opera type track, but the dramatic third movement is an eerie, spooky sort of track that would seem to fit the Phantasm movies. The accordion, while normally associated to upbeat, folky bands like Finntroll, is used as a haunting off key backdrop to the guitars and brass instruments. The fourth movement is an ‘epic’ wailing guitar solo backed by the cacophony of instrumentation while the fifth act is a more metal upbeat, cosmic sort of number that showed some chops amid the plethora of oddball instrumental antics. The closing track shows that Chromelodeon can structure an instrumental album with the correct pacing as it is a fittingly “closure” sounding track.

If it seems like I’m flailing like a blindfolded kid at a review piñata, it’s ‘cos I am. Few albums have left me verbally challenged as this, but at the same time, in an era on metalcore plagues and death metal staleness, Chromelodeon comes as an oddly refreshing change, though not an outfit I will seek out voluntarily.

Only recommended for the most opened minded, non blinkered, challenge loving or flat out fucking wasted or high listeners.

Originally published on www.philadelphiaweekly.com on November 2 2005. Written by Doug Wallen.

Class of ’05
The Philly indie scene is stronger than ever.

It’s been a big year for Philly. The Eagles went to the Super Bowl. The New York Times dubbed us the “sixth borough.” National Geographic named us the country’s “Next Great City.” Beanie Siegel got off. The Real World invaded Old City. And the quasi-chick-flick In Her Shoes showcased everything from the Rocky steps to the Jamaican Jerk Hut. At long last, it’s not hyperbole to say the world’s eyes are on our city. And its ears, for that matter.

This was the year Diplo and Hollertronix became a global phenomenon, party boy Dave P remixed Bloc Party, folkie Amos Lee toured with Bob Dylan, at least four different compilations chronicled our music scene, and Buried Beds and the Spinto Band each had songs featured in national TV commercials.

Even sticking to the narrow margins of underground rock, we had trouble keeping track of all the key players in Philly music this year. It’d take at least a few more cover stories to address the jazz-heads, the hip-hop scene, the avant-garde, the punk and metal enthusiasts, and those countless singer/songwriters.

Sitting on such a musical hotbed, we surely missed a band here and there. So do us a favor-for every new band we tell you about, tell us about another.

You’ll be telling the world.

Chromelodeon

Sound like: Instrumental epics informed equally by film and video-game soundtracks.

Latest record: Heart of Sawdust.

Label: Bloodlink (Philadelphia). www.bloodlink.com

Toured with: Evolution Control Committee.

What we said: “A booming battering ram of disparate riffs, epic synth atmosphere and every-instrument insanity.”

What Punk Planet said: “You have to hear it … highly recommended.”

Band highlight: Capitalized on trend of playing video-game music; performed special encore at First Unitarian Church alongside the Minibosses.

What’s next: Recording more and learning music to more games.

Feature and review originally published in Amplifier issue #52, January-February 2006.  Written by Brian Baker.

Chromelodeon

Those of us who came of age in the 1970s (and have the gray hair and memory lapses as proof) would never have bet the rent that progressive rook would experience a resurgence and reinvention in the new millennium. Once you’ve ingested monkey tranquilizers and gone coma at a Yes concert during “Bales of Psychotropic Doldrums” or whatever the hell they called that drivel, the sheen sort of peels off the genre.
Thankfully, there’s a new generation creating music that swells and soars with the same visceral energy that the best prog had to offer in the ’70s. A good many Of them, particularly Philadelphia’s Chromelodeon, are creating this new symphonic rock without the benefit (or onus) of being influenced by the genre’s forefathers. “We’re more of an epic instrumental thing,” says Chromeiodeon synthesist Ryan Soloby between teaching assignments in audio production as a graduate student at Temple University.
“We’re all obsessed with video games and that’s what really influences us. We didn’t set out to do video game music, but its almost inevitable.”
Chromelodeon began when its members were high school students, but the octet’s roots go back further. “It’s a classic case of almost growing up together,” says Soloby. It helps with the dynamics, because we’re unbelievably used to each other. There’s not really any surprises.”
Although the band’s members have been friends for over a decade in some cases, Chromelodeon came together under its current banner about four years ago, after testing material under a different name, and then doing a demo as Chromelodeon in 2001. Two years ago, the band released its compelling debut EP, In the Year 20XX, and they’ve recently followed up with Heart of Sawdust, a more streamlined execution of their musical vision. “The first one had vocoders and theremins and all kinds of stuff on it,” says Soloby.
Although any number of sonic parallels could be drawn with Chromelodeon (including Yes, King Crimson, Kansas, and Curved Air), Soloby’s credit to video soundtracks remains steadfast; the band has recorded an unreleased front-to-back cover of the Ninia Garden II music bed and Chromelodeon has been able to tour nationally through monetary sponsorship offered by the underground gaming/recording community. “We don’t have a huge national following, but everywhere we go there are always a couple of kids who have been waiting to see us for the longest time,” says Soloby.
For Heart of Sawdust, Chromelodeon stripped away as much excess as possible in an effort to approximate the band’s visceral projected-lights-and-video stage presentation.
“We also went for a slightly more live feel as opposed to a track-by-track layering. The way we recorded 20XX, with over-dubbing and overlaying, gave it this prog feel and that’s not what we really were going for. Heart of Sawdust has a more orchestral feel. People see us live, then head for the merchandise. The feedback we get is that they love it, but they love our live show more – which is a compliment, because so many times groups can’t play what they played on the album because of Autotune and overdubbing.”
In a similarly reductionist attempt to distance itself from the often imagery-dense prog perspective, the only titles that have been assigned to the songs on Heart of Sawdust are their corresponding track numbers, “One” through “Six.” “That came about because the songs were written before any context was applied to them,” says Soloby. “We felt like giving them titles after the fact wouldn’t do them any justice.”
As an instrumental outfit, Chromelodeon also deftly avoids the prog trap of having a showy singer performing bad conceptual poetry tarted up with overly dramatic music. It’s a pitfall of whitch the band is all too aware. “We’re trying to avoid that singular musician aspect,” says Soloby. “It’s always a part of a whole, not separated.”

Heart of Sawdust Review

On their 2004 debut, In the Year 20XX, Philly octet Chromelodeon showed themselves to be brilliant students of prog rock, extracting the passion and restraint and excising the overarching dramatics and unnecessary bombast of the form. With their sophomore release, Heart of Sawdust, Chromelodeon wisely follows suit with another succinct disc of orchestral rock delights. Once again eschewing the need for conceptually grandiose lyrics (epic storytelling is how most prog bands of the ’70s eventually disappeared up their own asses), the music is left to do its work. The band fills every available space with a virtual symphony of electronics and the standard paraphernalia of classic rock without the accompanying cliches. The songs on Heart of Sawdust avoid any implied meaning that could be found in actual titles, and are instead named numerically from “One” to “Six”. It’s a daring gambit, but in this vacuum of association, the soaring music is free to swirl around the listener’s conscious mind without the baggage of specious sword-and-sorcery contextualism to distract from the enjoyment of the music in its purest form. If the thought of prog rock leaves you cold, give Chromelodeon a fair shake; you’ll be surprised at just how punk their prog can get.

Written by justincharlesharlan, published on crapfilter.net on January 11 2006.

Recently, Philadelphia based Nintendo-rock octet, Chromelodeon decided to create an alterego to release their arrangements of music from video game classics. To the average listener, one may think their original music was composed for video games in the first place, and whether or not this may be true, Chromelodeon came to a point where they decided their original music and their covers needed separate identities, this article focusing on their new creation Sprite Slowdown. My only concern in choosing them for an “Under the radar” piece was whether or not they were signed, because I knew they had recently done some work with local label, Bloodlink Records. They reassured me in choosing them:

We’re in a gray area. Still working with Bloodlink on the ongoing press we’re getting for albums through them, but we have no further agreements on projects. In fact, we just finished a new DIY album on our own we’ve very happy with…

We begin with a few questions for the band…

CF: Who is Sprite Slowdown, meaning who is in the band and who plays what? In what way are you related to the band Chromelodeon? Side project?

SS: Its a mirror image of Chromelodeon: same players, but different concept.
We’re trying to differenciate between our original material and video game arrangements. We’ve got four albums, two from each area.

CF: Name a few unsigned bands that you think should be featured in upcoming editions of “Under the radar”.

SS: Harris! I think we still owe them after all we’ve put them through the past couple years, all the more reason to prove their good intentions overall. Very rarely do we sense that type of sincerity and devotion they show, while also making great music. [They were featured in Someone sign these guys” and will undoubted be featured here soon.]

CF: What was the best show you’ve ever played and/or favorite band you’ve played with?

SS: This is a toss up… we played before Yo La Tengo at Culture Shock Fest, in front of a couple thousand. We had a movie theater sized screen behind us with all our video game visuals projected onto it, it was incredible. But, the other best overall show had to be our 3rd US tour homecoming show, headlining the First Unitarian Church here in Philly. Our friends The Minibosses came back on stage to do a dual-band encore, it was ridiculous but epic. The crowd was close to sold out, and there’s still some audio/video bootlegs floating around the internet somewhere…. [The Minibosses are also AWESOME! Readers need to check them out at minibosses.com.]

CF: Besides music, what else are you interested in?

SS: Would video games sound redundant? Video games, yes.

[PAUSE]

Before I unpause and go back to the interview, I’d like to conclude with a few words about Sprite Slowdown. I have worked with both the boys of Chromelodeon/Sprite Slowdown on several occassions and have seen them countless times. In both instances, their live performance is epic. Most recently, I did a show with them as SS in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia. I was very impressed by their wide array of video game covers. Who knew that the them from Echo the Dolphin 2 could sound so damn good? Make a point to visit their web page: www.chromelodeon.com.

[UNPAUSE]

CF: I hear that as a band you enjoy drinking (Sparks). Is this true?

To the question above, there only response was this:

CF: Kiss up to the writer of this column. Who was the coolest promoter you’ve ever worked with?

SS: Of all the ground we’ve covered, we look forward most to hitting Denver, Colorado. Josh from Monkeymania Warehouse always takes care of us, the shows are consistently amazing. He’s also from the band Friends Forever, a 3 piece that tours guerilla style by playing shows outside of venues literally within their open van, while shooting fireworks at the audience. Also,
“sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!”. [Sound like a great guy, but you missed the point, this question was STRICTLY for my ego, I was an awesome promoter guys… C’MON!]

CF: We here at The Filter, pride ourselves on covering important breaking world events, with that in mind what do you think of the news that Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards are getting divorced?

SS: Weird Al’s portrayal of Rambo in “UHF” totally beats out Sheen’s impersonation in “Hot Shots”. [Agreed]

CF: And finally, if you were trying to sell your band in 10 words or less, what would you say?

SS: Mike Tyson’s Punch Out.

[GAME OVER]

Thanks for reading, and remember to email me at crapfilterpress@gmail.com with the subject “Under the radar” if you are interested in being featured.

Originally published on alternative-scene.blogspot.com on February 19, 2006.

 

Chromelodeon is an eight-piece instrumental rock band from Philadelphia. The instruments used by the band consist of: guitars, bass, drums, synths, accordion and an electric violin. So, you get to hear cool videogame covers with some great instrumentals? You sure do… And gosh, they sound so great! The keyboards accompany guitars so well on their galloping rhythmic horses of slaughter that would make some people freeze. Chromelodeon’s music mixes sarcasm with musical wit to deliver a genuinely crafted book of music. Topping even The Mars Volta in ‘Eloquence is Dead’ from “In The Year 20XX” album in their quest to include as much progressive sensibility as they can into one song, Chromolodeon rage back with a tense rope of swinging guitars and vocals that sound like they are modulated by the same instruments used by Britney Spears (yeah, that bitch) and the like. You know, the ones that transform your vocals into certain vowels to create a compressed effect, like Imogen Heap or Daft Punk. Sprite Slowndown is a remastered tribute cover to some videogames, and sure sounds as good as Chromelodeon.

 

 

 

For sure, they are a mark in the experimental indie rock market, something that’s quite easy to hear and mellow enough to stay in your head for a long time! And if you ever have the chance to hear either bands live, don’t waste it! At stage, they’re perfect… Give it a listen, you won’t dislike it.

Review of Heart of Sawdust, originally published in Punk Planet issue #72, March / April 2006.  Written by Chris Burkhalter.

I’m told this Philly-based outfit puts on impressive shows, playing music from, and inspired by, video game soundtracks. Whether or not they cite The Legend of Zelda as a defining influence, 1970s progressive rock seems a more useful point of reference. Consisting of eight showy virtuosos of such instruments as violin, Theremin, and accordion (guitars too), Chromelodeon plays for the duration of the album’s thirty minutes something not unlike the giant, cataclysmic finale of a particularly heavy King Crimson workout. Highly operatic and surprisingly witty, these guys don’t sound a thing like any other working band that I know. 

Originally published in Deek Magazine, Issue 20 (The Brutality Incident) in April 2006. 

It’s a very welcome change to hear a band that doesn’t fit in with most of the synthesizer-driven rock music surfacing lately. Chromelodeon is that band. An 8-piece group that produces heavily prog-based instrumental epics, utilizing everything from keys, accordian, violin, theremin, and vocoders, Chromelodeon could never be mistaken for any dance-punk synthesizer schlock. Heart of Sawdust was released on Bloodlink Records, the same label that has put out releases from indie-wierdos like An Albatross, Milemarker, and Atom & his Package. Chromelodeon may be closest in relation to An Albatross, but are much more given to Rick Wakeman’s 70s prog keyboard work, combined with some of the sinsiter musings of Fantomas for good measure.
The six tracks on this record clock in at almost a half an hour, with each track building and climbing in a very straightforward manner (straightforwardly?). Their songs are not simplistic, but from the start of the first track to the end of track six, Chromelodeon seem to be driving towards the finish line. Or maybe they’re flying on the wings of some fantastic griffon. Whatever it is, I hope they don’t stop.