The Key Studio Sessions: Rosu Lup

Philly’s Rosu Lup has existed in a few different forms over the past three years. There’s the haunting, minimal trio that caught our ear with the Currents EP in the spring of 2013, and there’s the orchestra-backed band that recorded a Folkadelphia session that fall. There’s the explosive chamber-pop outfit that delivered moving existential ruminations from regional stages, and there’s the current configuration that recorded this week’s Key Studio Session. The Rosu Lup of today is a tightly-practiced five-piece with an affinity for spectral synthesizer lines and a bit of Springsteeny-ness by way of The War on Drugs.

The band is readying its debut LP for an early winter 2016 release, and teases a few new songs from it in this session – but the set gets rolling with a stunner of a cover. Frontman Josh Marsh channels the tense emotional ennui of Sharon Van Etten’s “Every Time The Sun Comes Up” and the band’s arrangements nicely fit the song’s blend of deep heartache and carefree pop. Of the originals, listen for the rumbling aggression of Crazy Horse in the midtempo “Guard Your Name” and a sense of 80s radio rock in the seasonally-apt “Halloween Ghost.”

Rosu Lup has started to wind down activity for 2015, but stay tuned – we hear some big announcements may be on the horizon. Keep tabs on them at Facebook for updates, stream this week’s Key Studio Session below and grab a free download over at Soundcloud.