€4.50
Some bedroom projects should stay there. Or even better, be hidden under the bed, covered up by piles of empty beer cans, dust and dirty laundry. This is definitely not the case with Empire Cheese, the moniker chosen by Matthias Kreutzer. Empire Cheese manages to give you a glimpse in the personal space of the bedroom loner. Sitting there, recording sketches, ideas and traces of lo-fi pop and delay drenched melodies while downing a bottle of cheap red wine, without the limitations and reservations you feel when writing songs intended to be heard by 'others'. In his own words, after being asked to do a 7" EP "…the idea of efficiency became part of this activity, all of a sudden I have the responsibility for the space they are providing me, which is literally the 15 minutes on the vinyl and in a more abstract way their dedication and trust in what I am doing. The title is a somewhat ironic comment on this situation which I almost find a bit scary since I never thought of Empire Cheese as a project with which I would release records."
Non-the-less, Empire Cheese was made available on vinyl. The first song, Trap, starts off with a distorted, almost danceable, beat but after the plastic sounding 1970's Bontempi organ combined with his low, layered vocals come in, the atmosphere of the song completely changes into an intimate lo-fi pop song with a beautiful melody that sticks into your mind. The second song, 'The Gap Between What I Should and Will do Tomorrow', somewhat connects to Trap, but includes more layers of organ, vocals and guitars. Despite the absence of drums the song is very rhythmic: one staccato guitar playing just three cords (remember punk?), while another plays a melodic loop, all accompanied by sober vocals.
The flip side features the song 'Distant', a 6-minute drone of delayed guitars and vocals that's like a long drive in summer through a landscape similar to the one pictured on the sleeve: a clear blue sky, crystal clear lake, green treetops and majestic mountains in the distance…