We Are Eyes, We Are Builders - Soviet CD

Product Description In early 2001, one of New Yorks finest new groups, Soviet, quietly released their debut album We Are Eyes, We Are Builders on an independent imprint (Head Records) The debut collection that fused the intense emotions of urban suburban youths with the sounds of the new computer culture, caught the attention of critics and music lovers around the world. NME magazine describes them as a five piece, new wave, electro pop collective that sounds like Roxy Music meets Suicide but more Duran Duran thrown in. VICE magazine places them at the number one slot in a guide of Electroclash artists raving Soviet is only like the hottest band and that they have become one of New Yorks best kept secrets. With a song on the Tech-pop compilation out on Ministry of Sound and the single Sheltered Life produced and co-written by Soviet for Erland Oyes debut album out on Astralwerks, this down town favorite is destined to reach a whole new audience. Though the name Soviet surfaced in 1999, the bands singer and songwriter Keith Ruggiero had been experimenting with a 4-track in his Connecticut home since the mid-90s. Teaming up with collaborator and fellow band member Chris Otchy, the band began to take shape and the pair started performing at shows around the country. With overwhelming positive response, they set out to create a unit that could bring the sound of their debut to life in a live show. With the addition of new members Amanda, Kenan and Greg, their latest shows have been nothing short of electric. With the line-up complete, Soviet have moved their home to NYC, the city that has embraced them so enthusiastically. Appearing at the SynthCon festival in LA and the Electroclash festival in NYC, Soviet has played alongside heavyweights such as Peaches, Fischerspooner, the Faint, Khan, The Killers, Add N to X, Stereo Total and the A.R.E Weapons. Rave reviews of their live shows have appeared in publications such as Paper, NME, Vice, V, the Village Voice and the shows have attracted a whos who of the contemporary electronic music scene. Shows at Exit, Joes Pub, Luxx and appearances at the aforementioned festivals have placed this group sitting high and fly on industry hot sheets. The single Candy Girl has become a favorite on the critically acclaimed New York Electroclash compilation on Mogul Electro as well as the forthcoming Ministry compilation. Ultimately the buzz and industry hype isnt what drives this group to produce such beautiful modern music and explore the emotional stirrings of an emerging new generation. Its their contemporary language and sonic textures that keeps them from being just another retro new wave group. Copies of their cover of Yazoos In My Room have already started making waves in the underground dance clubs in NYC and samples of the new material shows the promise of major label breakthroughs. Review Soviets sound may be Eighties-inspired but the music is definitely contemporary, and it manages to breathe new life into the electro-pop format with crisp production values and sparkling synth sounds. Live, the quintet aspires to reclaim electronic music from the DJs and electroclash artists who simply plug in a DAT or a laptop for a show. The fight for decent electronic pop music is being fought in the trenches, and bands like Soviet are winning the battle one live show at a time. --Charlie Amter, Miami New TimesYou wont find a bad song per se of the 12 on We Are Eyes, We Are Builders, Beginning with "Commute", a cold, angular number that seems to have gears, the Soviet thesis becomes clear: technological isolation, urban alienation, and electronic relation, all communicated through digitized noises and high-speed rhythms that would have sounded ahead of their time twenty years ago. Keith Ruggieros vocals affect a future-shocked automation, while the instrumentation buzzes with laptop loops, mechanized drum beats, and synth, synth, synth. "Commute" slides seamlessly into the danceable curiosity of "Circuit Love", which then rides into the albums two "singles" -- "Marbleyezed" and "Candy Girl". All three are robotic odes to passion -- like love songs two computers might write to one another -- and manage to be simultaneously dispassionate and saccharine. Yes, Soviet has done something amazing here -- created an album that sounds so much like something loveable, while managing to deliver it in a way thats absolutely mundane. --Devon Powers, Pop MattersSoviet s music really is positive. From songs like the poppy Candy Girl to the synthetically ambient China there s an innocent, disquiet about We Are Eyes, We Are Builders. It s as if the members of Soviet are musically inclined children and synthesizers are their new toys. If you ignore the media and just sit down and listen to it you come to realize this album is exciting and really well made. For some unknown reason this genre of music up and disappeared at the dawn of the 1990 s and over a decade later Soviet are picking up the torch. They wear their synthesizers on their sleeves like a badge of honor. If you stop and think about it Ruggiero and his band mates have real balls to play this sort of music in such a guitar saturated musical atmosphere. The reality of being a synth band while acts like the Hives and the Strokes are receiving radio air play twenty-four hours a day doesn t make Soviet s job any easier. We re still hearing garage rock from the sixties in every single band that has come out, notes Ruggiero. All the rock bands sound like a band straight out of 67. It just seems to be more accepted but the minute you pick up a synthesizer it s a real fight to be taken seriously. --Marcus Kagler, Under The Radar

Specifics

• Album: We Are Eyes, We Are Builders
• Artist: Soviet
• Label: CD Baby
• Genre: Electronic, Pop
• MPN: HD001

1. Commute
2. Circuit Love
3. Marbleyezed
4. Candy Girl
5. Lonely Days
6. Breakdown
7. Sensitive
8. Run-In
9. Soviet Bot
10. China
11. Solar Baby
12. Street Thunder

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