Biography
Land Observations is a solo project from James Brooks' formerly of Appliance.
James Brooks was originally one-third of Appliance, an under-rated and ahead of their time band who were among a clutch of acts, collectively marginalized under the post-rock umbrella, struggling against the suffocating Brit-Pop consensus that dominated late-90s indie. They signed to Mute Records at the same time as kindred spirits Add N to (X) and Echoboy, and released a handful of fine albums and EPs, before going on indefinite hiatus in 2003. Since then, Brooks - who was the band's guitarist and melodic architect - has largely returned to his practice as a visual artist, teaching at a college in Kent and exhibiting internationally, only occasionally engaging in musical projects.
Land Observations is different in that it's the first musical venture that Brooks considers to be directly related to his visual art, which of late has been focused on themes of mapping and cartography, the notion of boundaries and surface area, and the correlation between landscape and civilization. These are weighty subjects to be sure, and ones that Brooks was enthused to discover that he could address as usefully through music as through his drawings and video installations. Following an initial EP - Roman Roads I-III, released on Enraptured last year- an inspirational evening at the Roundhouse Short Circuit festival led to Brooks resuming his working relationship with Mute Records; highly appropriate, since although Land Observations is a solo instrumental project for electric guitar and loop pedals, it's still obviously very much inspired by electronic music in terms of construction and texture.
For those who still equate electronic music with "dance music" however, it might be worth noting that beats are conspicuous by their absence; instead, Land Observations is a meditative, highly conceptual project, intended to make the listener reconsider their relationship with the place in which they live, specifically by using the idea of Roman Roads. Brooks is fascinated by the way in which these roads simultaneously exist and don't exist, or exist currently only as fragments or templates; the road beneath the road. An idea that disappears almost as soon as you are aware of it, dissolving around you even as you lock on to its seductive, linear groove.
Of course, as a long-term krautrock obsessive, Brooks is more aware than most of the significance of The Road in popular music. From the Beach Boys to Kraftwerk and beyond, the road variously symbolizes progress, identity, rebellion, escape, forward motion into the future or capitulation to fate, journey and destination, the deal with the devil or the unlimited horizons of absolute freedom. Kraftwerk's mighty Autobahn looms unavoidably over Roman Roads, but Brooks is comfortable, happy even in its shadow. Recorded in Berlin, the eight tracks here pay easy homage to their European forebears, but are unmistakably British in their overall sound and feel, nodding melodically to the traditional folk music of these isles, and existing at a slower pace, on a smaller scale, than the cross-continental constructions of Kraftwerk and company.
Signed to Mute Records in 2012 and with a debut album release, 'Roman Roads' in September 2012.
James a fine artist himself combines art with music to create visual and aural projects in gallery's in London and Paris as well as exhibitions at Rough Trade East.
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