Rotifer

Thanks for popping round.



The fifth Rotifer album "The Children on the Hill" is out, and I'm extremely chuffed with it.

Release date in Austria is November 27, Germany March 3rd, digitally it is out pretty much wherever.



Here's something nice that Wreckless Eric wrote in his liner notes:



"I didn't know how great you were back then - it slowly dawned on me over the years. I hope it doesn't take everyone else as long to cotton on."



Then there's a very nice thing Robert Wyatt wrote about the last one (Coach Number 12 of 11) on a postcard:



"In fact I really like your no-nonsense accompaniments to your terrific lyrics: I'm thinking of the Frankfurt Kitchen - I love that. Artists can be so vague, I love the specificity of such stuff. 1st rate artwork also."



And here are Darren Hayman's liner notes to Coach Number 12 of 11:



"Robert Rotifer claims to be Austrian, but he’s lying through his teeth. Robert Rotifer is English, as English as Lacoste, as English as Rickenbacker guitars, as English as Chicken Tikka Masala. Robert writes in his second language better than I think in my first.



I’m 37, and I don’t really know how to make friends anymore. You can’t say ‘Do you want to come round my house to play?’. I guess I’ve met Robert maybe ten times in ten years. The last time was in his kitchen and his wife, Judith, made Leek and Fennel soup. So I guess we might be friends now. Robert lives in a very old English house, in a very old English town. What’s he trying to prove?



It’s all about travel with Robert. He commutes from Canterbury to London, and sometimes from London to Vienna. He seems to find travelling difficult too. He worries if he’s on the right train carriage, especially when the announcement tells him he’s on coach twelve of eleven.



I spent a whole evening watching Battlestar Galactica while Robert kept texting me from a three-hour traffic jam in Bexleyheath. I spent four hours in congestion with him on the M11. The man’s a jinx. The planes and motorways do get him home eventually. Robert writes songs about home and travel. He writes about things close to him and the things that drag him away.



There is a real need for unknown songwriters, its Robert’s tough luck that he isn’t more popular, but it’s our good fortune. We need the undiscovered to write songs about trains and kitchen designers for us. Successful artists don’t tend to do that as much.



Robert is good too, very good. I might even say he’s one of the best Kent based Austrian songwriters in the business and I know a few."



Let's just say I prefer Perrys, Fenders and Korma, but apart from that he's spot on.



dbl7", 1996

CD, 2001

7", 2002

CD, 2004

CD, 2006

CD, 2008



In the meantime, you could also go to my proper website www.robertrotifer.co.uk which has a handy album player, some old songs, diary entries, videos and more.



Finally, a few generous quotes on 2006's "Before the Water Wars":



"I don't understand how, with English as a second language, Robert Rotifer writes better lyrics than most English songwriters including myself. (Of course, I'd never let him know this). Before The Water Wars is an absolutely charming album that stands comfortably alongside anything by Richard Hawley. Great musical moments, really confident vocals and those lyrics: 'Sit down here with me boy / look at my face / I've got more chins than you've got balls.' I wish I'd written that. (But don't tell Robert.)" - Eric Goulden aka Wreckless Eric



"You can hear The Fear in this beautiful record. To me this sounds like Belle & Sebastian in Ziggy outfits. A wonderful sixites country melody, and in the background five gay English cowboys blowing their hunting horns (I might have watched too much Brokeback Mountain). My favourite song on the record is 'Schengenländer Die!' I think I'm going to cry. That poor Schengenländer, his game is up. The swine!" - Nick McCarthy, Franz Ferdinand



"Here we have the fantastic new long player from Vienna's finest singer-songwriter Robert Rotifer. It was recorded in (almost) 24 hours, Robert Rotifer's third album shows that it's crafted by someone who's got the ear, the brains, the heart and the fingers of a great songwriter. This is a great album." -

Rough Trade Record Shop



 

 

 

 



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