Biography
The current constellation of The Observatory are vibrations of shifting rhythms, synth bass space, oscillators and abused guitars, with repetition and urgency at the heart of their riff. Hammering out a certain truth. Noise, rock, and melancholy. The Observatory – a name that implies passive objectivity, but which really describes a band whose musical output is an impassioned response to the society it is enmeshed in, a society divided, and in tumult – where new forms of oppression must be actively met with new strategies for resistance. The heart and soul of The Observatory is in its constant reinvention. Sincetheir formation in 2001, the band has gone from folk electronica to prog to avant rock, taking a stylistic sledgehammer to each and every one of their previous releases, and approaching a more primal sound in recent years. With August is the cruellest (2016), in the aftermath of one of the worst haze disasters in history set against the backdrop of SG50, Singapore‘s fulsome celebration of 50 years of independence, the group‘s 8th long player addresses modernity‘s strident excesses vis-a-vis the ongoing ecological destruction in Southeast Asia, a result of environmental crime, economic greed, weak political will and an overarching domination of big business over humanitarian ideals. *Photo courtesy of Phillipp Aldrup
