Chris Rose's Robust Worlds has impressed us since first glimpse. He was actually barefoot, if you can believe that, and his set had the feel of a way more lysergic Kevin Ayers. It was freezing fucking cold and I'm pretty sure he wore a Hawaiian shirt. His debut LP is called Emotional Planet, and it's deceptively simple. Voice, guitar, some noisey shit, whatever. His playing is sick -- fluid, unforced, warm, soothed and soothing. It's a bath you don't want to exit. Seriously, if yr going to play guitar, play it like he does. With a trick in his back pocket and a Heavy Moon on his mind, Rose utilizes the sort of neo-noir narratives that you hear thru Neil Michael Hagerty, James Jackson Toth, Kurt Vile and other keen observers. Handguns, b&e, two-lane black tops, love, lust, and hard drugs. Life: summed up! [DE STIJL]
Chris Rose has been a go-to guitarist in town for years, playing with bands like Vampire Hands, Private Dancer and Heavy Deeds. For much of the last year though, he has embarked on a solo affair called Robust Worlds. The project is doused in characteristic reverb and provides dreamy imagery that cohesively pulls together all the work he's done in other acts through the years. [89.3 The Current]
Robust Worlds is still in its early stages but the experience Rose gained from Vampire Hands is obvious to anyone who's caught him live. He works furiously on guitar and synths with the same experimental, psychedelic sound that was so key to Vampire Hands, but in Robust Worlds, Rose takes it further. It comes off as a warped, sometimes dissonant, precocious space lullaby, with Rose alternating his pitches and playing with dubstep. He calls this sound "futurist folk-rock," which, for a made-up genre, is surprisingly accurate. "I wanted a description that I could deal with that would be mildly informative about the music," he explained. "At first it really helped me to think of my songs as 'folk songs plus,' so it would be like, 'Oh, this isn't space at all, it's a busy folk song.'" [City Pages, October 2011]
