US - Florida / Czech Republic - Full Moon 236 - 11/25/15

RickoLus / Leto
Destroyer / Barvy
Silver Rocket Records

This is an interesting one: a split single between US troubadour RickoLus and the Czech act Leto. Silver Rocket is a label/concert promotor based in Prague (influenced/inspired by US DIY labels such as Amphetamine Reptile, Dischord, Touch and Go, and Kill Rock Stars).

RickoLus is Richard Colado, from Jacksonville Beach, Florida. He is a new name to me, but being a long-time fan of Ben Cooper's Radical Face (and Electric President) I was introduced to the wondrous world of RickoLus as he was the opening act for Radical Face when they recently played Oslo. Along with Cooper, Colado also runs the Mother's Basement project, and Colado and Cooper also have an ongoing project called Clone (I'd better check out that USB stick... 'A laser-engraved crystal thumb drive'!). In addition, well, the two of them had a (supposedly) trashy band called Biowulf as well. Some active guys, for sure. Colado did also led The Julius Airwave (now defunct?), but as RickoLus he has released a line of recordings (mixtapes/cassettes, singles, EPs, albums, ...) such as the albums Youngster (2010) and the 2CD set Troubador (2013) - both (co-)launched with Portland, OR label Circle Into Square, making RickoLus a 'label mate' of Tom Filepp a.k.a. Cars & Trains.

Leto is an experimental, post-modernist art-pop/alt.pop duo from Slezsko, Czech Republic who put out their debut (?) album Zbytky Ozárených Ploch last year (meaning something like 'Areas with remnants of radiation' in English, at least when asking Google...). Their "Barvy" (Colours) is a dark, gently brooming electro-pop piece with some dry and discreet guitar plucking. It is somewhat charming, but can't compete with RickoLus' "Destroyer", which is sort of an epic indie-ballad. At times RickoLus has been compared to bands like The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand, but he is leaning more towards the indie-folk part of the scale. "Destroyer" makes me (slightly) think of a Radiohead/Thom Yorke ballad, or maybe even Blur - or even the lesser-known 90s UK act Babybird. I guess multi-instrumentalist Colado has performed and conducted everything himself in his recording shed: vocals, guitars - acoustic as well as electric, bass, drums, keyboards. "Destroyer"'s theme is, I guess, about falling in and/or out of love, Colado singing the line '...be my destroyer / I will destroy you...'. It's a catchy, comfortable, and grand-sounding song and it makes me want to go through RickoLus' back catalogue. Which I will, because I went 'bananas' by the merch table at their gig: Yes, I bought all recordings available, including the limited edition, Euro-tour 2015 only CD, Coconut (which will be released on vinyl in December). Go check out and support RickoLus. Buy his records!

PS! This seven-inch was released some months ago (back in May), but it's still available from Silver Rocket.

Copyright © 2015 Håvard Oppøyen