★★★★★
There'd be no other way to really ever understand music unless one would experience it firsthand. Ghostland Observatory was the kind of group that presented something uniquely overdone: solid dance music that is both poppy and electronic enough to interest people. The last song ("Kick Clap Speaker") off their latest album, Codename: Rondo, features the album's absolute best moments; unfortunately, the preceding nine songs leave so much to be desired that you'd be lucky to make it so far...
- www.adequacy.net
2010-11-15
★★★★★
It's said that a rising tide lifts all boats, so the opposite would have to be true as well. Ghostland Observatory had been knocking around Austin for a few years prior to Robotique Majestique, but it was their first album to come out after MGMT blew up. Granted, what ensued was a label feeding frenzy only by 2008's standards, but it was a pretty opportune time to be in a duo whose main talking points were squealing synths, hair-metal falsettos, and a wardrobe that included capes...
- pitchfork.com
2010-11-04
★★★★★
Rajon Rondo is a sneaky quick beanpole of a point guard who confidently captained his Boston Celtics past my beloved Cleveland Cavaliers in this past year's NBA playoffs. While the Celtics' Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen have received most of the praise and accolades for the Celtics recent renaissance, it was the unheralded Rondo who had his coming out party this past spring and catapulted the Celtics past some higher seeds and into the NBA Finals...
- glidemagazine.com
2010-11-02
★★★★★
In "Give Me the Beat", a winning little song halfway through Codename: Rondo, Ghostland Observatory singer Aaron Behrens struts down the boulevard of some seedy nighttown. A "pusherman" offers him ups and downs, whites and greens; a guy in a Cadillac tries to sell him some hot jewelry; a pimp extols the services of Sheila and Jeanine ("Legs for days, they go both ways!"). To each of these characters Behrens politely replies, "That ain't for me / Just gimme the beat...
- www.popmatters.com
2010-11-01
★★★★★
Fog. Lasers. 'Opening Credits.' Children of paradise billow out of gothic keyboards. Those flying monkeys from Oz swarm in carrying Freddy Mercury's leggings. No, wait, this is Texas. That's Aaron Behrens, Ghostland Observatory's frontman, in a high piercing vocal register long-hallowed by rock n' roll arenas, on producer/drummer Thomas Turner's tight fuzzy backbeat wings...
- www.urb.com
2010-04-17
★★★★★
Never skimping on the drama, Austin-based electronic funk duo, Ghostland Observatory, is not about to start now. Their third album, Robotique Majestique, is full of infectious dance beats fused with frenzied soul, intense vocal-ability, and swelling rock sounds. Singer-guitarist Aaron Behrens' vocals are nothing short of spine-tingling and eardrum-damaging, and rhythmic multi-tasker Thomas Ross Turner's unmistakable loops, robotic interludes, and sonic space jams are programmed to perfection...
- www.junkmedia.org
2010-03-19
★★★★★
Since GLO's breakthrough at the 2006 Austin City Limits Music Festival, the local duo has struggled to top its electroclash charades. Their solution? Lasers. On Ghostland's third self-produced LP, Robotique Majestique, mastered at the Exchange in London by Nilesh Patel (Daft Punk, Justice), that strategy largely translates into massive, Technicolor electronic interludes delving deep into Depeche Mode...
- www.austinchronicle.com
2009-07-21
★★★★★
This wasn't Ghostland Observatory's first time on the Austin City Limits stage. That honor occurred in March on a live broadcast for KEXP, but this was the local duo's first full concert for an international television audience, and there are a few moments during the opening bleeps of "Piano Man" that capture the importance of this 2007 performance. Braided frontman Aaron Behrens, with his back toward the audience, clasps his hands in prayer toward his partner in rhythm, Thomas Turner...
- www.austinchronicle.com
2009-07-21
★★★★★
While listening to a Ghostland Observatory CD is far from the mind-altering experience of seeing this electronic/blues rock/soul duo tear it up in person, Robotique Majestique is nonetheless a comfortable place to entertain your ears until the band comes through your town on their next tour.As a whole, the band's third release is not without its flaws...
- www.ink19.com
2009-07-20