It's a gamble

Behind the fog and tree branches, a figure wearing a white mask moves his body in jagged rhythms to experimental tracks. The small crowd watches, transfixed on the man and mesmerized by the music.

The mysterious itsagamble played at Call the Office last Saturday night, June 11. The local electronic musician is also known as Flora from another project, but his real name is Rob Ross, and he came to London from Edmonton a couple of years ago.

His sound has been classified as experimental glitch hop, but according to him it is simply pop. “I love challenging sounds, but I want to make it accessible. I like when people ask ‘what kind of noise of that?’ and realize they actually like it. That to me is exciting,” said Ross.

Ross has been working on itsagamble, originally a side-project, for two and half years now.

After working on Flora for 10 years, he found himself wanting to get away and experiment with a different sound. “My flora stuff is way more melodic, more Boards of Canada. Itsagamble is dancier, harsh but accessible,” said Ross.

Ross is enjoying the music scene in London, and working on his new record label Hands, which he launched in April. Hands promotes abstract and other electronic-based performances in and around London.

“I think Oh Collective has the London music scene by the throat. There is a lot more happening in London other than indie rock. There are a lot of electronic abstract acts, still in the basement almost, wanting to come out. So with Hands I’m really focused on bringing those people out, and giving them an opportunity to play.”

Ross plays mostly house and gallery shows and generally keeps away from bigger venues. He prefers drawing and playing for a niche crowd. There is not a lot of information available about him on the internet, besides his actual music.

“With so much information available now, everyone knows everything about everyone. I sort of like the not knowing, the mystery behind certain artists, and actually having to do physical work like going out to shows to try to figure out who these people are.”

“I remember a time when I got excited about release dates. I marked that stuff down on the calendar! Now you know everything so far in advance, and that mystery and anticipation is sort of gone.”

Part of the excitement created around the itsagamble performance was the set. Although music is clearly the main pull, a set helps create atmosphere, said Ross.

“A lot of it is visually bland, people just pressing buttons,” said Ross about typical DJ performances. “This show is one of the first one I’ve actually built a set.” He plans to keep on developing sets for his future shows.

Ross hopes to have some new itsagamble tracks out by next spring or summer. They will be available online and “probably on a three inch CD, vinyl or cassette or something weird like that,” said Ross.