Friends in Far Away Places

Hot news from the Laroca camp is that La Glorieta has been picked up by Sony Pictures for use in Love Monkey, a major new CBS TV show in the US, shortly to be aired in Europe. Laroca's debut album, Friends In Far Away Places, continues to gather pace. Album tracks are being playlisted across the world including Matrix Music Super Jason Bentley's KCRW radio show in LA, Variety Is The Spice Of Life (Washington DC) and OverXposure.fm (Chicago). Reviews are secured in Blues & Soul and BigChill.net with more to be confirmed and news pieces have also appeared online at Angryape.com and Lostatsea.net with Laroca's MySpace site is building nicely. Latest industry feedback has included comments like: 'I absolutely love Plage Lodo - if I were to ever get the compilation CD off the ground that I'm trying to produce, I'd insist that track be included' (ABCDEFG Radio), 'Love it' (The Big Chill). A heady mix of lush electronica, world flavours and muted beats, Friends In Far Away Places is the impressive debut album from cinematic groove merchants Laroca (AKA Rob Pollard & Olly Wakeford). Admirers of Bonobo, Quantic, Lemon Jelly, Fragile State, Thievery Corporation and the Catskills label, Laroca's sound is reassuringly chilled yet funky, symphonic, soulful, layered and exotic; drawing on world influences ranging from Sufi and Afro-Beat to flamenco and Eastern European gypsy. Laroca's live show is equally as inspired, enhanced by the video wizardry of VJ Myogenic (Ulrich Schnauss, Gilles Peterson) they were invited to play at The Big Chill Festival long before they even signed to Just Music. Friends In Far Away Places is inviting and compelling; highlights include Generalife, a Sufi-tinged filmic affair, Laroca's signature tune Looking Like Lions and the hypnotic Plage Lodo, inspired by a trip to Corsica, with its laidback, muted beats and soothing flute which can't help but conjure up images of pure white beaches and Super8 holiday films. The album will be preceded by a digital download only EP release, EP1, on March 20 featuring Looking Like Lions, La Glorieta (which is a brand new track) and Theme Flamboyant. Pinnuk.2006