Cityscape

by The Fanged Robot

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about

Going by the name of The Fanged Robot, Robby Cosenza, shifts off the drummer’s stool to muse over an eclectic mix of electronic instruments. The first notice in the latest single, Cityscape is a pulsing, but minimal, lullaby. Every note and phrase delves into the space between fear of what’s to come and the courage to move through it anyway. Although the recorded version of the project is a shift from the hellfire-fueled fervency of the live version of The Fanged Robot, Cosenza never escapes his musical genetics, nor is he trying to.

Cosenza writes lines that only drummers do and phrases them with hard ticks of the tongue and swishing “ssshhh” like brushes on a languid jazz lounge snare. Likewise, the Springsteen-esque moments of piano that wonder in behind and out-of-focus hint at a hardscrabble listening history.

“My love you’re wrong, if you think the dawn is comin’. That’s not sunrise, the cityscape is burning,” Cosenza advises in Cityscape. The breathy staccato chords, obscured background vocals and lullaby notes of the Mellotron swirl around Cosenza’s soothing doubled-vocals. It all makes for an irresistible guide into a treacherous landscape. But it’s not all doomed.

Cosenza sonically leads you through the dangerous streets but never let’s go of your hand (unless you’re still crying). Cityscape isn’t dark, necessarily, it’s just a deeply honest take on being anxious about the place you’re in but still hopeful. Bookending a song full of images of fire, sewer rats, cracked lips and chlorine is one simple nod to the possibility of renewal, “The hour’s starting over.”

lyrics

Cityscape

My love you’re wrong
If you think the dawn in coming
That’s not sunrise
The cityscape is burning
In the miles of sewer rats
You dropped your deer-skin cap
Now you’re sure to catch a death if it starts storming

It’s best not to test
Your old companion
We’d rather keep those pretty legs still standing
No candy corn or licorice
If the wind keeps going on like this
“Happy Halloween”
with your cracked lips screaming
__________________________

Sorry for the fuel and all the chlorine
I guess the page we lost
Contained some kinda warning
I don’t care about your eyes / There’s only two more cigarettes
So don’t get the backpack wet / So just keep the backpack dry
I’ll only hold your hand when you stop crying
I guess that’s just the kind of guy that I am

The hour’s starting over……..

credits

released June 22, 2017
Music written and performed by Robby Cosenza
Produced by Duane Lundy with assistance from Justin Craig and Robby Cosenza
Mellotron by Justin Craig
Cover Photo by Chet White
Cover Design by Robbie Morgan
Press by Robbie Morgan
Released as part of The Singles Series on WhiteSpace Records ©2017

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The Fanged Robot Lexington, Kentucky

THE FANGED ROBOT, is ROBBY COSENZA.

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