The blogging department of The Sound Sniffer brand has been completely dormant for around two years now… and it was always going to take something incredibly special to bring our fingers back to the keyboard and force us into manically flick through our book of passwords to sign back into this WordPress site again. Here we are though! Scribing a new and typically impulsive reactionary gushing of words for a piece of music that impacted!
The time has come! Buckle up!
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This is a special album. Very special.
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ROSCIUS — NO FALA B
(Released: March 6th 2025, via Nomadic Recordings)
Roscius has unleashed an album upon us invigorating enough to bring (me) a retired writer back to paper it seems; an album that pretty much has the potential to invigorate the entire organic live electronic music scene if people grab hold of it and fully understand the level of artistry at play within it. This isn’t an overstatement.
I met Roscius (Will Serfass) in London a number of years ago when he was releasing under a different project called Wassailer at that time .. (a gorgeous emotive indie project) .. Will as it turned out, played one of our earliest shows to host as promoters in London (our third ever show!) and produced a live looping guitar and vocal set featuring an array of peddles and intricate high tariff moments. It was clear from minute one; that Serfass was at the top of his experimental musical craft. A master of left-field ideas.
It wasn’t until a couple years later that I stumbled across Roscius on a passive browse of the Instagram feed’s musical underworld. An exciting percussion-based project appeared, and I was soon to realise it was Will Serfass responsible for its creation and development again. Another project brimming with quality and the highest levels of output.
Having followed the Roscius project from afar since discovering it that day, it was extremely exciting to hear a full-length album was in the works. It was even more exciting when NO FALA B’s first-to-be-released singles came out prior to it’s release. The final of which, ‘Five to the Floor’, really teased in this forthcoming album – a perfectly suitable intro to this bank of work on the whole.
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Song by Song:
The full album was released on March 6th of this year and opens with the dreamy acoustic tones of BURIAL, a quirky, smartly composed and experimental track that meanders beautifully and pushes the atmospheres of what’s to come into place without fully uncovering too much or drawing the curtain too wide.
GRIT is next up and begins with a real sense of urgency, a faster BPM, a raw intensive energy! Roscius brings out some techno, house infused elements as this track explodes into life amidst the organic rhythm section he’s assembled in his studio and a series of slightly off-beat and outstanding hooks… an exciting track!!
UDU’BSTEP similarly to GRIT that came before it, is centred firmly in the live electronic bracket.. gorgeous vocals and sounds rippling throughout amongst beautiful marauding acoustic percussion and a clasping break-beat moment separating the song from itself in it’s mid-point. A song with shades not dissimilar to the decadence of German producer Marek Hemmann’s early sound.
DIS UK plays out on Spotify with a beautiful interpretive dance video accompanying it – it’s easy to see why. High tempo, uplifting and another strong piece cementing NO FALA B’s ability to get it’s listeners swaying and shifting. WAITING FOR YOU O’CLOCK brings us back down a notch and brings in some beautiful jazz elements; it seems like a pause of sorts to begin especially after the high octane tracks that proceeded it… but this is not a track to be overlooked or used as a pause at all … the twinkling melodies and vibrant power synth chords in the latter half bring a new type of intensity to the fold; beautiful chaotic excellence within the instrumentation… this one is likely my favourite track on the album!
SAUDADE / SAUDE again starts slower and builds, a general theme – whimsical vocals intertwine against a humming backbeat that threatens and teases until finally opening up into the most danceable + unexpected moment on this album from 4:11 onwards – music for a campfire dance session; huge production success here!!
STONE ROSE (PART.I & II) is the sexy one – the words ‘SEX’ are repeated and it’s pretty clear the mood being conveyed here. Bouncy, warm, high tempo, evocative with a gushy and warm bassline holding it all together. The bass-based A TURISTA E O GRINGO comes next continuing this sexy organic phase of the album with the album’s change of theme song INCELUSIVE chiming in with plenty of orchestral chime – at this point, we veer out of the sexy phase into a dreamy and truly euphoric cloud nine point in time whilst listening. Roscius has created a beautiful piece here akin to Four Tet x GoGo Penguin combined and that’s also cool!
OI OI (part. II & I) offer some respite and leaves some space for the final few songs to take hold and bring us away as intended; CARNAWAR does just that! We are transported to a rave-y space – a darker area – quite an intense track this one with it’s clear tech theme and relentless nature… whilst the rest of the album caressed and cared for you mostly; this track is a lot more penetrative and broody!
Following the sweat inducing CARNAWAR the album’s lead single FIVE TO THE FLOOR appears in all it’s jazzy and uplifting glory.. stark contrast to the rummaging and pummelling track that came before it. FIVE TO THE FLOOR is rightly the poster boy song of this album!
The album concludes with FALAVA’s soft patters as we fade out into silence again and begin to reflect on the album just spun …
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This album is insane from Roscius given how it was performed and recorded completely organically… this album holds the potential to invigorate the scene completely and sets an extremely high benchmark for what’s possible within production and creativity… we are in a new phase of live electronic with the emergence of organic electronic acts like berlioz sweeping through and hopefully Roscius will continue to success also on the live front!
An artist of the caliber of Roscius is able to create their music live fully organically and this is talent that should be talked about, supported and enjoyed in equal measure. This album is a special one and I am proud to cover it!
– About ‘The Sound Sniffer’ –
The Sound Sniffer is a music blog that’s still only a baby – Founded in early 2019 by Kevin Coakley, a music writer and ghostwriter. ‘The Sound Sniffer’ also runs gigs and showcases in London since Oct 2019. The showcases are picked from artists found in the blog’s submission inbox.
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