Metro Riders - Lost In Reality (Possible Motive)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

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What We Say

Dusting off obsolete recording equipment & using long forgotten music software, Metro Riders take a trip back in time via this electronic noir soundtrack for Possible Motive, to Europe's ungentrified, pre-frappuccino, smack ridden, 80s backstreets to remember the pasty skinned nocturnal characters, radicalised squats, urine smelling telephone kiosks & socialist dreams about to be swept under the rug by technological change & ruthless neo-liberal ideology.

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What The Release Notes Say

A pungent ooze emanates from the subway. As a sticky drum machine sequence rolls out like thick dark fog, ice cold synth swirls rise from the depths.

Since the debut album Europe By Night, one of the main references associated with Henrik Stelzer and his Metro Riders project has been that of cinema, and particularly the European genre films of the 1980s. With its seedy subject matters manifesting both in visual style and music, the vibe of that era has crystallized over time. Passed down to us from deteriorating video cassettes, it became an invaluable key to decoding our present day reality.

And this is true for this album as well; Stelzer does not hide the fact that he builds heavily on that vibe; referencing it through track titles and utilizing a particular recording setup consisting of a Fostex and a reel to reel in order to achieve and recreate the feeling of those soundtracks — as heard on magnetic tape rather than vinyl.

The motion picture soundtrack as an arbitrary genre definition becomes, in the hands of Stelzer, a pair of X-ray specs for him to envision a kind of music that deals in grains and contrasts rather than hooks and choruses. And like Roddy Piper in John Carpenter’s 1988 film They Live, he hands those glasses over for us to see the true face of our times.

On Lost In Reality Metro Riders maps out an emotional geography of the cities at night, wherein the cinematic haze becomes a tool by which we can view them with new eyes. Not steering away from the darker alleys nor the harsh realities of modern day politics masquerading as progress. Yet escapism, in the end, seems the only viable option. But not as an endgame, but rather a stepping stone for building a new vocabulary for an utopian language.

CREDITS
Recorded and produced by Henrik Stelzer/Metro Riders
Mastered by Antony Ryan (ISAN)
Artwork and typography by Henrik Stelzer/Metro Riders
Liner notes by Simon Eliasson
300 copies on black vinyl

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Find more late night electronica in the Slowtronic Playlist