Rosetta (band)
Encyclopedia
Rosetta is an American
post-metal
band from Philadelphia incorporating elements of post-hardcore
, shoegazing
, drone
, post-rock
, avant-garde
, and ambient
, with influences as diverse as Neurosis
and Isis
, My Bloody Valentine, Frodus
, and Stars of the Lid
. The band somewhat humorously self-describes its music as "metal for astronauts," and its members are very interested in astronomy and space travel. While Rosetta members have repeatedly expressed frustration and disapproval for the term post-metal
, the band is generally considered one of the preeminent artists in the genre today.
Their debut album, The Galilean Satellites
, featured two separate hour-long discs (one of more metal-oriented music, and one of ambience) that synchronize
together. Although originally intended to be one disc of metal tracks sandwiched by ambient ones, the band had enough material to cover two discs.
The band's second release, Project Mercury, a split with Balboa
, was released April 24, 2007. After a full United States tour in July, the band's second full-length album, entitled Wake/Lift
, was released on October 2, again through Translation Loss. The release of Wake/Lift was accompanied by selected United States touring and followed by a June 2008 Australian tour.
In 2009, the band released a 3-way split EP on vinyl only with Year of No Light
and East of the Wall. One song called "Homesick" (a cover originally by The Cure
) is available on the band's Myspace. A European tour followed in June of the same year.
Rosetta's third full-length album, named A Determinism of Morality, was released on May 25, 2010, to near universal critical acclaim, and was followed in the summer by the band's first full U.S. tour in three years. In October, the band released a split LP with Philadelphia band Restorations, on Cavity Records, featuring a previously unreleased track which had been recorded in December 2007.
, but was chosen rather for its femininity and beauty. It is also, incidentally, the Latin name of a nebula in Monoceros
, the name of a satellite used to study comets
, and an orbit type
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
post-metal
Post-metal
Post-metal is a music genre, a mixture between the genres of post-rock and heavy metal.Hydra Head Records owner and Isis frontman Aaron Turner originally termed the genre "thinking man's metal", demonstrating that his band was trying to move away from common metal conventions...
band from Philadelphia incorporating elements of post-hardcore
Post-hardcore
Post-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement. Like post-punk, post-hardcore is a term for a broad constellation of groups...
, shoegazing
Shoegazing
Shoegazing is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It lasted there until the mid 1990s, with a critical zenith reached in 1990 and 1991...
, drone
Drone music
Drone music is a minimalist musical style that emphasizes the use of sustained or repeated sounds, notes, or tone-clusters – called drones. It is typically characterized by lengthy audio programs with relatively slight harmonic variations throughout each piece compared to other musics...
, post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
, avant-garde
Avant-garde music
Avant-garde music is a term used to characterize music which is thought to be ahead of its time, i.e. containing innovative elements or fusing different genres....
, and ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, with influences as diverse as Neurosis
Neurosis (band)
Neurosis is a post-metal band, based in Oakland, California. They formed in 1985 as a hardcore punk band, and their sound progressed towards a doom metal style that also included influences from dark ambient and industrial music as well as incorporating elements of folk music...
and Isis
Isis (band)
Isis was a Los Angeles, California-based post-metal band, founded in Boston, Massachusetts, with a career spanning from 1997 to 2010...
, My Bloody Valentine, Frodus
Frodus
Frodus was a 1990s Washington, D.C.-based post-hardcore band, described by critics as a mixture of math rock, hardcore punk, and alternative rock. Their songs were frequently dark and dissonant...
, and Stars of the Lid
Stars of the Lid
Stars of the Lid is a duo specializing in drone-based ambient music. They list among their influences minimalist and electronic composers such as Arvo Pärt, Zbigniew Preisner, Gavin Bryars, and Henryk Górecki, as well as Talk Talk , post-rock artists Labradford, and ambient innovator Brian...
. The band somewhat humorously self-describes its music as "metal for astronauts," and its members are very interested in astronomy and space travel. While Rosetta members have repeatedly expressed frustration and disapproval for the term post-metal
Post-metal
Post-metal is a music genre, a mixture between the genres of post-rock and heavy metal.Hydra Head Records owner and Isis frontman Aaron Turner originally termed the genre "thinking man's metal", demonstrating that his band was trying to move away from common metal conventions...
, the band is generally considered one of the preeminent artists in the genre today.
Biography
Rosetta's members all were acquaintances in high school, and had played in various bands until they decided to play a last minute gig on August 20, 2003, after only three practice sessions, and improvised the entire show. Following this, they proceeded to write more songs, play more shows, and eventually record a four-song demo album, which picked up interest from Translation Loss Records.Their debut album, The Galilean Satellites
The Galilean Satellites
-Personnel:* Michael Armine – sound manipulation, vocals* David Grossman – bass guitar* Bruce McMurtrie Jr. – drums* J. Matthew Weed – electric guitar, violin, mastering* Aaron Turner – artwork...
, featured two separate hour-long discs (one of more metal-oriented music, and one of ambience) that synchronize
Synchronization
Synchronization is timekeeping which requires the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. The familiar conductor of an orchestra serves to keep the orchestra in time....
together. Although originally intended to be one disc of metal tracks sandwiched by ambient ones, the band had enough material to cover two discs.
The band's second release, Project Mercury, a split with Balboa
Balboa (band)
-Studio releases:*Balboa LP *Balboa CD *Manifeste Canibale EP -Compilations:...
, was released April 24, 2007. After a full United States tour in July, the band's second full-length album, entitled Wake/Lift
Wake/Lift
Wake/Lift is the second full-length album by post-metal band Rosetta. The album was released on October 2, 2007 through Translation Loss Records on CD, with a limited-edition double LP prepared for late 2008....
, was released on October 2, again through Translation Loss. The release of Wake/Lift was accompanied by selected United States touring and followed by a June 2008 Australian tour.
In 2009, the band released a 3-way split EP on vinyl only with Year of No Light
Year of No Light
Hailing from Bordeaux, Year Of No Light is a French band formed in 2001. With their first album, Nord, "Year Of No Light have proven adept a shifting seamlessly between genres, balancing post-rock, sludge, somber psychedelics and crushing dark and depressing atmospheric shoegaze".In 2010, now...
and East of the Wall. One song called "Homesick" (a cover originally by The Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
) is available on the band's Myspace. A European tour followed in June of the same year.
Rosetta's third full-length album, named A Determinism of Morality, was released on May 25, 2010, to near universal critical acclaim, and was followed in the summer by the band's first full U.S. tour in three years. In October, the band released a split LP with Philadelphia band Restorations, on Cavity Records, featuring a previously unreleased track which had been recorded in December 2007.
Etymology
The band's name does not come from the Rosetta StoneRosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek...
, but was chosen rather for its femininity and beauty. It is also, incidentally, the Latin name of a nebula in Monoceros
Monoceros
Monoceros is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Greek for unicorn. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the east...
, the name of a satellite used to study comets
Rosetta (spacecraft)
Rosetta is a robotic spacecraft of the European Space Agency on a mission to study the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta consists of two main elements: the Rosetta space probe and the Philae lander. The spacecraft was launched on 2 March 2004 on an Ariane 5 rocket and will reach the comet by...
, and an orbit type
Rosetta (orbit)
A Rosetta orbit is a complex type of orbit. Theoretically, an object approaching a black hole with an intermediate velocity will enter a complex orbit pattern, bounded by a near and far distance to the hole and tracing an oscillating pattern known as a hypotrochoid.In quantum mechanics, the...
.
Discography
- demo (self-released, 2003–2004)
- The Galilean SatellitesThe Galilean Satellites-Personnel:* Michael Armine – sound manipulation, vocals* David Grossman – bass guitar* Bruce McMurtrie Jr. – drums* J. Matthew Weed – electric guitar, violin, mastering* Aaron Turner – artwork...
(Translation Loss, 2005) - Project Mercury with BalboaBalboa (band)-Studio releases:*Balboa LP *Balboa CD *Manifeste Canibale EP -Compilations:...
(Level Plane, 2007) - Wake/LiftWake/LiftWake/Lift is the second full-length album by post-metal band Rosetta. The album was released on October 2, 2007 through Translation Loss Records on CD, with a limited-edition double LP prepared for late 2008....
(Translation Loss, 2007) - The Cleansing Undertones of Wake/LiftThe Cleansing Undertones of Wake/LiftThe Cleansing Undertones of Wake/Lift is the companion EP to the full-length album Wake/Lift by post-metal band Rosetta, released in 2007 on Translation Loss Records. It contains various noise samples compiled by Michael Armine but is not meant to sync with Wake/Lift.-Tracklist:#untitled –...
(Translation Loss, 2007) - Three way split with Year of No LightYear of No LightHailing from Bordeaux, Year Of No Light is a French band formed in 2001. With their first album, Nord, "Year Of No Light have proven adept a shifting seamlessly between genres, balancing post-rock, sludge, somber psychedelics and crushing dark and depressing atmospheric shoegaze".In 2010, now...
and East of the Wall (Translation Loss, 2009) - A Determinism of MoralityA Determinism of MoralityA Determinism of Morality is the third full-length album by post-metal band Rosetta. The album was released on May 25, 2010 through Translation Loss Records on CD...
(Translation Loss, 2010) - Split with Restorations (Cavity Records, 2010)
- Junius / RosettaJunius / RosettaJunius / Rosetta is a split EP by American art rock band Junius and American post metal band Rosetta. After several years of planning, the title was made available on September 27, 2011 through Translation Loss in CD format and on November 22, 2011 through The Mylene Sheath in vinyl format...
with JuniusJunius (band)Junius is an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. The bands name is taken after Junius, the pseudonym of a political writer who lived during the late 1700's.-History:...
(Translation Loss Records / The Mylene Sheath, 2011)
Members
- Michael Armine – sound manipulationSampling (music)In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - David Grossman – bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, vocals - Bruce McMurtrie Jr. – drums
- J. Matthew Weed – electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....