Hotel Morgen

‘Gracefulness’ is the by-word for To Rococo Rot’s Hotel Morgen, an album where they gently, thoughtfully fold more instruments into their music – here, they’re working with grand piano, Wurlitzer and vibraphone, alongside their usual armoury of electronics, percussion and bass. There’s something quite peaceable about the songs here – witness the gentle sway of “Sol”, or the eddying blips and hums of “Non Song” – though they do break out in a sweat on occasion: “Miss You” is refined, uncluttered tender-disco, and I suspect the song title may be a knowing wink to the Rolling Stones’ tune of the same name; “Bologna” is clicky, pin-prick electronica. It may lack, just a little, the pop moments on earlier albums (see “Cars” or “Telema”, for example), but in its place comes a sort of oracular wisdom – the trio of Schneider and the Lippok brothers are comfortable with each other’s musical lexicon, and have found subtle new ways to coax more of an ever-changing, ever-pleasurable same from collective effort.