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Belleruche

Reach for the Bottle

A lightly funky, danceable track from Belleruche's darker fourth album Rollerchain (Tru Thoughts, 2012): tribal rhythms and a melody that will not leave, which one German critic heard as a distant cousin of Moloko.

By korczis 3 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Belleruche placed Reach for the Bottle in the middle of Rollerchain, their darkest album, and it is one of its friendlier moments: trip-hop and soul with a light touch of funk, groovy and catchy, one of the tracks laut.de counted among the album’s danceable, almost poppy material.

Song Summary

laut.de heard the song as lightly funky and distantly reminiscent of Moloko, and quoted its refrain, which tells the listener to take a good look at themselves before they reach for the bottle. The French blog La Toile de Pandore heard something else: tribal rhythms, a story of bottles thrown into the sea, where it wondered whether Kathrin deBoer had slipped in the words of her songs, and a melody that would not leave. It named the track its second favourite on the album.

Musical Breakdown

No source describes Reach for the Bottle part by part, so this breakdown keeps to the elements the two reviews name.

Rhythm

The track rests on what La Toile de Pandore called tribal rhythms, with the light funk laut.de heard in its groove.

Vocal and Melody

Kathrin deBoer sings the song. The NZ Herald heard her voice across the album ranging from childlike to seductive, fragile to scornful; which of those she chooses here, no source says.

Concepts in Focus

A hook is the idea a song is built to stick with you, and La Toile de Pandore’s word for this melody, entêtante, means exactly that: it gets into your head and stays. On an album that the NZ Herald found spacious, cold and dark, a hook like this is what keeps a listener close.

turntablism is in the band’s DNA. Belleruche are Kathrin deBoer on vocals, Ricky Fabulous on guitar and DJ Modest on turntables, and their debut album was called Turntable Soul Music. What the turntables play in this track, the sources do not describe, but Rollerchain was, according to Brighton Source, the record on which the trio drifted further from their earlier turntable soul into sparser, stranger songwriting.

Artistic Context

Belleruche formed in North London in 2005 and signed in 2007 to Tru Thoughts, the Brighton label that also released Alice Russell – High Up On the Hook; by 2012 Brighton Source called them the label’s biggest-selling act. Rollerchain, their fourth album, came out on 7 May 2012, written and recorded by the three members, who are credited together as writers, producers and engineers. The label described it as darker, more bass-heavy and evocative, with the melodic, soulful touch kept.

Impact and Reception

Reviews of Rollerchain were mixed: the NZ Herald gave it three stars and felt the band had not quite joined all the links together, while laut.de and La Toile de Pandore were warm, and both picked this track out. The band announced its end in October 2013 and new material in 2025. Pour something soft, and press play.

Learn from this track

Introductory

What you will learn

  • Recognise how a catchy melody works as a hook even inside a dark, sparse album.
  • Explain what a turntablist brings to a band, and why a group could call its music turntable soul.
  • Compare two critics' readings of one song and see how differently a lyric can be heard.

Listening guide

  1. the rhythm The tribal rhythms La Toile de Pandore heard, with the light funk laut.de noticed on top.
  2. the melody The melody La Toile de Pandore called entêtante, the kind that will not leave your head.
  3. the refrain The line laut.de quoted, which asks the listener to take a good look at themselves before they reach for the bottle.

Concepts in this track

hook

99 tracks

The short, memorable idea a song is built to stick with you: a sung phrase, a riff, a synth line. A hook is designed for repetition and usually arrives early.

turntablism

4 tracks

Playing the turntable as an instrument: scratching, cutting and juggling records by hand to make new rhythms and phrases rather than simply playing songs in sequence. It grew out of hip-hop DJing and has its own competitions, such as the DMC World DJ Championships.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. laut.de heard a warning about drink in this song; a French blog heard bottles thrown into the sea. Which reading does the music support for you?
  2. Rollerchain was called darker and more bass-heavy than the band's earlier turntable soul. Can a song be catchy and dark at once?
  3. A critic compared the track to Moloko. What does a comparison like that tell a reader who has not heard the song?

References

  1. laut.de. "Rollerchain" von Belleruche (2012). Review
  2. La Toile de Pandore. Belleruche, Rollerchain : le cardiochoc (2012). Review
  3. The New Zealand Herald. Album review: Belleruche - Rollerchain (2012). Review
  4. Brighton Source. Critic round-up: May 2012 (2012). Review
  5. Bandcamp (Belleruche). Rollerchain (2012). Artist
  6. Wikipedia. Belleruche. Encyclopedia

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