Of The Opera
New York City, New York, United States | SELF
Music
Press
Brooklyn by-way-of-Boston-by-way-of-Chicago duo Of The Opera make shimmery rock-by-way-of-electro that’s infectiously heartfelt, dark and driving. “For fans of Muse, M83, Cold Cave, Yeasayer, Depeche Mode, The Church, MGMT, Interpol,” says their Facebook bio. We concur. - The Grand Victory
Brooklyn, Brooklyn… Too many cool bands from Brooklyn and the duo, Of the Opera, is one of them. Their new single “Lost in the Ravine” oozes 80's new wave with pop leanings. Love the back and forth vocals and arrangement on this track. Despite it’s frenetic pace, it has a catchy melody. Hopefully, we’ll hear more from Robert Bock and Matthew Tenney soon. - The DaDaDa Music Blog
Take a voice and lyrics perfectly suited to emo rock and then transplant them to dark, baroque electro-pop. That will give you something close to Study Natural Law, the debut recording from Of the Opera, Robert Bock's solo project. And solo in this case means entirely so. Bock was previously one among many in Monday's Hero and The Firebird Band, but on Study Natural Law he plays everything here save one live bassline.
What Bock has created is a strange mix of The Notwist, Depeche Mode and the moodier, more aggressive sort of electronic music (I'm not sufficiently attuned to the differences between techno, club, house and dub, and all the subgenres thereof, to name it precisely) – something nervous, breathless, histrionic and irritable, and which breaks away from ordinary pop song structures, opting instead for sweeping changes in pattern and mood. This way he isn't so tightly bound by repetition, and over the course of the customary three or four minutes Bock is able to develop some of his compositions like a narrative and therefore cover much more ground – sonic as well as emotional – than your average pop or dance tune. True to its name, this gives parts of his solo project a grand, operatic feel, where a single song like "The Buried Chorus" or "Saw It off Below the Knee" can encompass antithetical emotions: triumph and despair, heartache and rage. There are, despite the order of this elaborate mesh of spacey synths and digitized drumbeats, real human warmth and inviting melodies. The occasional excesses arise when Bock fails to decide where his emphasis should lie and, as in "1909," recites (as opposed to singing) whole rambling passages in the same hysterical, impassioned tone. - Eric J. Iannelli (2006, The Daily Copper)
Cool atmospheric pop music that's destined for radio attention. - Boston Herald (Nov. 2nd, 2009)
They break into more synth grooves and smart bridges than their swoopy-haired counterparts. Watch them blow up. - Weekly Dig (Sept. 2009)
Discography
09 May 2012 - Lost In The Ravine [Digital Single]
19 June 2012 - Cities Of Gold [7" Vinyl]
29 January 2013 - Talking Shadows [CD EP]
Photos
Bio
After a few years of on and off again activity divided between Chicago and Boston, OF THE OPERA’s connections to the fashion industry ultimately led them to New York and has since set them apart from their peers, allowing what was once a bedroom project on the west side of Chicago to transform into a breath of fresh in in the rapidly growing world of electronic music and to a greater extent, the dog eat dog nature of New York City’s expansive music scene.
The duo, Robert Bock and Matthew Tenney, spent years touring the country in various DIY projects before meeting in Chicago in 2007. The two have since spent their time working for some of fashion’s biggest designers by day and crafting songs in their studio housed in an old brewery in Bushwick by night. And when the occasion arises, redefining their live show to include everything from a detailed light show to a full band working out their arrangements at various venues in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn.
When it came time for the band to release their “Cities of Gold” seven-inch in the summer of 2012, New York’s own Marc Jacobs scooped up the release for distribution in Bookmarc, the brand’s media flagship, and requested a limited edition version be made to be sold exclusively on the company’s website. In the month’s after the release of this record, the two began crafting what would become the “Talking Shadows” EP and in the fall of 2012, they hulled themselves up in Bushwick Studio under the guidance of Joshua Kessler, whose clientele has included The Bravery and an incredibly diverse array of others. “Talking Shadows” is the first true showcase of the band’s perpetual evolution and takes leanings from the darker side of 80's new wave with intricate guitars meticulously layered over an aggressive bed of synthesizers and drum beats topped off with neo-gothic lyrics, resulting in frequent comparisons to M83, The Soft Moon, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Interpol, Wild Nothing, and Bloc Party. The artwork for the release was a collaborative effort between Brooklyn artist B. Thom Stevenson and renown photographer Kelsey Bennett.
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