DROELOE's "A Matter Of Perspective" [Review]

Every once in a while, an artist pops up on your radar that you’ve never heard of before but decide to try out. And every once in a while, that artist will have such an incredible impact on your life that you’re still processing everything they’ve done. For me, one of those artists is DROELOE.

DROELOE was a collaborative project between a graphic designer, Hein Hamers, and a music producer, Vincent Rooijers. Beginning in 2015/2016, the duo produced incredible music and art up until 2020 when Hamers left the project. Rooijers has continued to release music under the moniker DROELOE, but now as a solo project. Most recently, DROELOE released the album “The Art Of Change” on September 15^th, 2023.

While this decision for the duo to split up came on October 21^st, 2020, the band had one more surprise in store for fans. Released on November 13^th, 2020, “A Matter Of Perspective” is an anthology collection of the duo’s previous works.

We add meaning to the time we perceive by calling it a moment. By calling it a moment, time becomes a vessel for experience. How we refer back to and explain the experiences we had during a specific time, determines the emotional connotation we attach to that moment, and where it belongs in a string of moments we call our memories. These define how we explain ourselves, and the world around us, and are the root to our personal sense of reality. A story is a description, true or imagined, of a connected series of events, or moments. An argument can be made that stories and reality have the same origin as they can only exist through moments. — DROELOE - A Matter of Perspective Museum (Full Audio-Visual Experience)

“A Matter Of Perspective” is an anthology album consisting of the duo’s 3 bigger body of works as well as a few new tracks, and some ‘reimagined’ tracks. According to Hamers, this album was the duo’s way of paying homage and expanding upon the previous EPs.

“A Matter Of Perspective” is split up into four distinct parts. “A Moment In Time”, the duo’s first bigger body of work, “The Choices We Face”, a follow-up EP, “A Promise Is Made”, the final part of the trilogy, and a few songs that were released after the final EP, along with some songs made specifically for this collection. As such, this review will address each section in that order.

A huge part of this review will be referring to the “A Matter of Perspective Museum” video released by DROELOE in late 2020. Almost all of the artwork you'll be seeing throughout this review will be coming directly from Hamers's website, I AM HEIN HAMERS. In each case, I will be linking back to the original page for each piece of art. Every piece of art is either the property of DROELOE, Vincent Rooijers, or Hein Hamers.

A Moment In Time

During one of these moments, Rooijers and Hamers decided to release their first bigger body of work. On August 22nd, 2017, the EP “A Moment In Time” was released.

“A Moment In Time explores the idea of how life is a collection of memorable singular moments. A string of these moments can create a story. How we refer to these moments and what emotional connotations we attach to these moments determents how they fall into a string of moments we call our memories. These in-turns serve as the foundation for how we explain ourselves to the people around us and how we construct our personal reality.
The beauty of this is that you can often be transported right back into these moments, sometimes even by the most simple and mundane things. The way the light filters through the leaves of a tree, the voice of the train departure announcement. The idea for A Moment In Time was to celebrate these moments, settings, and objects that transport us back to our own moments.
The decision to have all of the artworks fall into a 1 point perspective is to enforce this idea of how a singular moment consists on its own but how a string of them makes a story. All of the settings are based upon personal memories we had that had connected with the songs featured on the EP.”
— A Moment In Time — I AM HEIN HAMERS

“Back When (1997)” takes place at 11:50 PM on December 31st, 1996. A 4-year old boy will be going to school and turning 5 in 1997. As his mom wakes him up and brings him to the TV to watch the countdown, he takes note of people shooting off fireworks outside. He gets a glass of apple juice and sparkling water while the adults all enjoy some champagne.

“Back When (1997)” track sparks a child-like energy and curiosity within us. It reminds us of a time when everything new and pure and every little thing or experience would get us really excited. — DROELOE

Our young boy has become a young man, now 17 years old in “Sunburn”. After spending 2 weeks at summer camp, he reminisces over the memory he shared with his new friends, and his first kiss. While being bathed in the light of the sunset, he rushes over to the next platform to catch his train, saying goodbye to everyone and noticing that one important person isn’t there. He's disappointed that he neglected to get any contact information from anyone. However, after taking a seat on the train, he stops and realizes that it might be for the best, as this way the memory gets preserved. This is by far the best track on this EP.

“Sunburn” is about how turbulent love and success can feel, every passionate positive experience or feeling can make way for its negative counterpart at some point. for us this track embodies the roller coaster between those two. — DROELOE

In “Lilypads”, Our young man is in the middle of taking his final exam before the summer break. After finishing early and checking his answers, he turns in his exam and begins to walk home. He notices some kids playing in the park by his house and is washed over with relief. Leaving his cares behind with every step.

“Lilypads” is about a memory triggered by something really insignificant (from a smell or a message on a answering machine) but can bring you to a place in your head where you haven’t been for a long while. the ballad of times past but also celebration of rediscovering the memory. — DROELOE

As the day begins to come to a close, our main character stares at the clock in “Homebound”. 2 hours away from getting out of work. Unable to focus he looks back at the clock over and over again. Only having the job to pay the bills, he’ll leave as soon as something else comes along. But as soon as the clock strikes 6, he rushes out of work. On the train home, he realizes how tired he is, but is happy to be going home.

Living your life while running away from yourself can feel like an endless journey, getting closer to accepting who you are sometimes even more so. but the latter can improve your empowering sense of destination and ambition along the way. it’s ok to feel sad, lonely or angry, as long as you realise it’s timely too. this is the feeling we tried to convey with “Homebound” — DROELOE

20 years from where we started, our young boy is now sitting in an empty hallway eating a sandwich, trying to make sense of the last hour in “Just Now (2017)”. Still hearing the roar of the plane engines, the adrenaline leading up to the jump was nothing compared to those moments of free fall. While he was screaming in excitement during the fall, he said very little afterward. After reminiscing, he realizes that life has slowed down quite a bit, and after this, nothing will really feel the same.

The final track and outro of the EP “Just Now (2017).” This record is meant to give the EP, and our lives up till now, some closure through the rapturous applause at the ending. Though we’ve had some ups and downs there’s plenty of hope for the future because the best is yet to come. — DROELOE

The Choices We Face

On August 10th, 2018, the second part of this trilogy, “The Choices We Face”, was released.

“As humans, we have an interesting relationship with the concept of choice. On one hand, we idolize the aspect of free will, and refer to it as the defining part of being human. On the other hand, it seems as if choices frighten us because it implies change. It also seems like choosing something doesn't always correspond with the desired outcome. With our ever evolving society, we have to go through many hoops and get permission from many people to bring these choices to fruition, thus leaving many things up to chance which is counter-intuitive when it comes to choice. One thing however is certain, that we will encounter a lot of crossroads on our path. These crossroads are often disguised as a single path, until you reach a T-junction.” — DROELOE - A Matter of Perspective Museum (Full Audio-Visual Experience)

“The Choices We Face” serves as a continuation of “A Moment In Time” and expands upon its original story. Where “A Moment In Time” referred to a collection of singular moments that when connected formed a story “The Choices We Face” explores the idea that every story is filled with choices, how you make these choices can lead you to various conclusions.
Compositionally these artworks also expand upon the concept of using perspective to reference narrative ideas and structures used in “A Moment In Time”. By Switching from a 1-point to a 2-point perspective, signifying this as the second chapter of the series. It also symbolizes the core idea of how a story can be a sequence of choices and how you make these choices can lead you to different outcomes. — The Choices We Face — I AM HEIN HAMERS

“The First Wish” is a haunting lullaby-esque tune. The artwork and title for this one can be taken quite literally as it’s referring to one of the first wishes we all had as a kid. That feeling of knowing what you want to be when you grow up starts at a very young age. Whether or not you choose to pursue that avenue of life, that young child you once were taught you how to dream. That little kid knew not to give up and kept on pushing no matter the odds. Now that you’re older and more exposed to the workings of the modern world, most of that childlike whimsy has faded away. Despite this, you’ll never forget what your younger self has done for you. If you look closely at the artwork, you'll notice that it captures that childlike whimsy perfectly. With a cartoon on in the background, and the same train from the single art of "Back When (1997)", it beautifully relays the fact that this is the same story, but from a different perspective.

My most played DROELOE song might just be “Weird Machine (feat. Nevve)”. It’s a song about leaving your old life behind and being yourself. A song about making your own rules and taking control of your life. While things can feel overwhelming, not acting will only lead to things being a bit harder on yourself. It’s about defining what kind of persona you want to show to everyone and finding common ground among the positive aspects of your life. Authenticity is the name of the game and being true to yourself is all you need to do. Nevve’s vocals are intoxicating as always and the chorus of this track just sends shivers down my spine.

You try to find common ground primarily in your strengths instead of your weaknesses because you’re done playing the victim in your story — DROELOE

“Taking Flight” is a track just about that, taking flight. Whether it’s just a single day trip by yourself, or a journey on the other side of the world with friends, it’s a song about deciding on something you’ve been thinking about for years on end.

“LIMBO” is up next and it’s an extremely haunting track. While many of the songs in DROELOE’s discography can illicit that feeling, very few come close to how well this track relays that. It might be the most haunting one in this collection. While this is the emotion the song is trying to convey, it’s also a song that tries to express a bit of anger. This track is all about taking a step back from whatever situation you’re in that has you heated and full of venom. It’s about processing what your next move is, no matter what choice you face.

The choice of following your dreams is tough to hold onto sometimes because there are so many distractions, influences and thoughts in your own head that will lead you astray from it. This EP is about trying to find the balance of having the urge to impact the world around you vs letting it have an impact on you. — DROELOE

Sometimes in life, you need to reassess where you’re at. Have you gone down the wrong path? Did it even matter what decisions you made to get here? Are you even the person you want to be? It can be hard to even begin to figure out how you even got here in the first place, but it’s never too late to turn back and head down another road. Just take it “Step By Step”.

“Turn Around” is a follow-up to the previous track. After taking those initial steps to change the path you were walking down, you start to feel better day after day with a little hard work. No matter how far gone you think you are, you can always start fresh. While “Step By Step” was a much darker and heavier song, “Turn Around” is a lot brighter and happier sounding. The song is a lot more bright and peppy and reflects a renewed sense of self.

It’s funny how your personal sense of reality can make you blind for what’s outside of it, if you’re not actively exploring its boarders — DROELOE

The artwork for “Looking Back” is a fun one. In the background, you can see the single artworks for the previous EP, “A Moment In Time”. It’s a dark room where photos were developed. A record of all the good moments that have been preserved from history, and passed down time and time again. The thing is, while photographs traditionally capture the good moments, the bad ones are usually stuck in our heads. Both the good and bad moments are just as important because they make up who we are.

The more bad moments you’ve encountered, the more experience you will have in powering through the shit life throws at you. And the more good moments you cherish, the easier it is to come up with more reasons to live. Your story anchors you within your reality, and the way you tell it to yourself determines the momentum and direction of where the story will take you. So if don’t forget where you came from, it will be easier to see where you’re going. — DROELOE

A Promise Is Made

On October 11th, 2019, the final part of this trilogy, “A Promise Is Made”, was released.

“The future is mostly imaginary. The only ways we can approach it is through the relationship of cause and effect from a scientific perspective and our own imagination. Apart from that, the future doesn't really exist because we can only perceive the present moment. Throughout history, we've tried to get better acquainted with the future by making predictions. When we speak about what's going to happen in our own personal futures, we often speak about what's going to happen to us. By using the word "predict" we imply that we are in the passenger seat of that scenario. A promise is also a form of prediction as it concerns something that has yet to happen. The difference being that a promise is a determination to reach a point in the future that's dependent on our actions and choices. Approaching what's going to happen in the future because of us. Whether you're a passive observer or an active participant, it's fully up to you.” — DROELOE - A Matter of Perspective Museum (Full Audio-Visual Experience)

“A Promise Is Made” is the 3rd EP in the saga of EP's I worked on while being part of the DROELOE project. This EP plays off of the ideas portrait by both “A Moment In Time” and “The Choices We Face” and continues the thread by introducing the idea that to reach a goal, or to make and fulfill a promise is of you will, one has to navigate multiple situations willed with choices, temptations, and obstacles almost like a maze. In order to reach the end goal or to fulfill this promise made with yourself, or others, every situation or scenario has to be treated with purpose and deliberation, whether this is through intuition and instincts or morals and believes.
Visually the artworks present this idea by creating these perspective-bending maze-like structures out of seemingly mundane situations and grand-looking scenarios. This is directly in-line with the core visual ideas presented by the prior EP's that started of with a locked 1-point perspective in “A Moment In Time” symbolizing how a string of singular seemingly unconnected moments can together build a story. To a 2-point perspective in “The Choices We Face” referencing the subject matter of choices and how a story can have a different outcome based on what choices you make. To now in “A Promise Is Made” taking that idea of perspective and opening it up by bending it to its extremes. — A Promise Is Made — I AM HEIN HAMERS

What’s the difference between believing and knowing? That’s the question that’s proposed in “OATH”. There’s a huge debate to be had about what makes one distinct from the other, but what does belief even mean? Can a distinction be made between different kinds of beliefs? Can we use beliefs to amplify our progress? This EP is all about warping your perception and looking at things from a very different angle. In the artwork, you can see how the world itself is bending and a young girl is out exploring it. It could even be the girl who speaks in the song.

“Virtual Friends” might be my favorite song off of this EP. The story that DROELOE relays in the museum video is one of my favorites, and the explanation the band gives is better than anything I could ever say. According to an interview with billboard, the lyrics for this song were written even before “The Choices We Face” came out, with the main motivation being to create a feeling of discomfort and isolation.

“The main idea behind the song is about how differences between online and in-person communication can lead to a feeling of disconnect. For example, when someone responds to a joke via text the response is often a lot more exaggerated than what it might be in person. This can make conversations like that feel hollow or fake sometimes.” — DROELOE

“Casual Trouble” is about the mundane issues in life that seem to just start peaking your anxiety. No matter how small the issue, it seems to set you off and leave you just more and more exhausted. Maybe just taking a step back from life is the right move to make.

London Bridge is falling down in “Broken Bricks”. It’s a track about the Tower of Babel, or more specifically how some people are off in their own world with their own groups of people believing some things that they want to believe. While the museum video uses the analogy of looking up an old friend online and seeing how they’ve cemented themselves as a beacon in a group of people believing that the earth is flat, the comparison can be made to any group of people who have firm beliefs in something of that nature.

The word “Komorebi” is a borrowed word from Japanese. The literal meaning is ‘sunlight filtering through trees’. It takes on a different meaning however and it’s more of an experience. Walking through a forest and just taking in nature can’t compare to anything the city has to offer. Seeing the sunlight peak through all of the leaves and scatter across the forest floor is something truly special, and something that not many people take the time to step back and do. That’s the feeling that this track is trying to push, one of just taking a small step back from all of the hustle and bustle of modern life and truly enjoying what nature has to offer. The art for this song captures that amazingly well and the music itself takes on some Japanese influences as well.

The modern world is getting more and more complex with each passing moment. With the constant amount of things being thrown in our faces, whether it’s social media, the news, or just life in general, nothing seems tangible anymore. “Written Maze” give you a sense of just drowning in an overload of stimuli. Reality itself feels like it’s crumbling and yet, trying to figure out how you can start manipulating things to your advantage seems to be the way to go.

Impostor syndrome is something we all experience at some point or another. And “Petrified” encapsulates that emotion quite well. You just need to be confident for a few moments and overcome that fear in order to go all the way. Never compare yourself to others, you’re the center of your own story. Take it one step at a time and push through.

“World Full of Snakes” is by far the most unique song DROELOE has put out. It’s a full-blown rap song. This song features the artist ‘PJOTR V’ who can be assumed to be Rooijers under an alias. While it’s incredibly different from anything the duo has ever produced, it almost feels like it belongs on an Eminem record. This song is pretty much all about chaos. What if you just broke all of the rules set by society? How much hell could you raise? How many of your own problems could you just solve? If you just made every unethical choice possible, how would things turn out? I love how this song helps break up the EP quite a bit and it shows how much range the band actually has.

The shortest song on this EP, and one of the shortest on the collection is “Grind & Hustle”. It’s by far one of the catchiest songs on this EP and one of my favorites as well. It’s 8 simple words, but it really makes you want to just get up and go all out.

“If you dream about doing or making anything, the only way to make that a reality is to dedicate your full attention and effort in the path towards it. That path can be a long one, but a fun one too. This track is about celebrating the fact that giving your all and staying at it will ultimately bear fruit in the quest of bringing your dreams to life.” — DROELOE

Closing out this EP is “Push Through”. It’s a song about overcoming challenges, even when they can seem overwhelming. It can be something as small as just getting out of bed and starting the day, or making some huge life-changing decisions. No matter how big or how small the task is at hand, the only way to do something about it is to take it head-on.

Finally, we have reached the fourth and final section of the anthology collection. About half of the songs in this part were released prior to the announcement duo breaking up, with the other half releasing with this anthology. Half of them are ‘Reimagined’ tracks which are essentially remixes of their own songs. The other half of the songs help give some closure to the EPs.

“This album is about our personal experiences and our different and shifting perceptions of life. All the work on the album, musically and visually, was made in very turbulent times in our lives. We needed to grow a lot as people and broaden our horizons, in order to maintain the trajectory of the project and to stay sane in general. We’re super proud that we managed to make something that inspires ourselves in different ways and it would be incredible if that would also be the case for others. But apart from that, this release also marks the conclusion of the first “book” of the DROELOE project, onto the first chapter of the next book.” — DROELOE

“Panorama” is the song played throughout the entirety of the museum video. It’s a beautifully haunting and chilling track. One that elicits feelings of nostalgia, comfort, and motivation. It’s the embodiment of this collection, the heart and soul of it. If you’re listening to the song on streaming services, it’s the first one in the collection, and by far one of the most important ones.

DROELOE’s most popular song is “Sunburn” so Rooijers was a bit hesitant to remake the track. It’s a wonderfully done remix that compliments the original quite well. While the original feels more nostalgic, this reimagination of the track feels like looking back at things with rose-colored glasses. It’s what you remember the track sounding like, and following the theme of perspective, it just shifts your view of what the once was.

“At first I was a bit overwhelmed by the thought of remaking our most listened to single. Can I make something that’s on par and does not take away from the original? But then I realized that the whole point of doing this is to create a different point of view, therefore everything goes. As soon as I started working on it, it all clicked pretty quickly and fell into place. So for me this reimagination reminds me, among other things, to let go of limiting thoughts while making music and just try to embrace the flow.” — DROELOE

Had “The Choices We Face” come out a few years later, “Open Blinds” would have been included on that EP right at the end. It’s the true ending to the EP and that’s reflected in the art as well. Of all of the new tracks, this is the only one with a 2-point perspective. While it reflects the end of a chapter in this book, life has just begun and there’s still so much more to come.

‘Open Blinds’ is about the pressure that life naturally has (sometimes especially in the morning when starting your day) and how a fear of not being productive enough or a feeling of not spending your time right, will all, but be solved by basking in those emotions. This track is a continuation of “The Choices We Face” and serves as a form of affirmation to choose to spend my time with what feels right without worrying too much about what could have been. — DROELOE

The most popular track on “The Choices We Face” also ended up getting reimagined, and that would be “Looking Back – Reimagined”. Once again, this remix is a compliment to the original.

“Roadside Flowers” is the true ending to the “A Promise Is Made” EP. This track is all about just taking a moment to appreciate the world around you and taking a step back from everything. Stopping to smell the roses along the way.

“The idea of the track is to remember not to be too hard on myself, appreciatively working on my shortcomings without contempt, and to remind myself that a step backwards can help re-calibrate the steps forward in the long run.” — DROELOE

Once again, the most popular song off of “A Promise Is Made” was “Virtual Friends” so naturally DROELOE went ahead and reimagined the track. This might be one of my favorite artworks on the entire project. The colors are really fun and while I do feel the song loses a lot of its meaning in this reimagining, the reimagined tracks are more of a celebration of the band’s history as opposed to something new.

The last track apart of this anthology is “Treasure Map”. It’s the final track that’s meant to be on “A Moment In Time” and it’s the final track of this collection. It’s the end of all things, finally coming full circle. While things will always have a beginning and ending, this song is all about that journey. This song samples a video of a baby named Sadie who you can hear at the end of the track. I think my favorite part might just be the artwork, as the toy train we’ve come to know and love is sitting right below the windowsill.

“This album is about our personal experiences and our different and shifting perceptions of life. All the work on the album, musically and visually, was made in very turbulent times in our lives. We needed to grow a lot as people and broaden our horizons, in order to maintain the trajectory of the project and to stay sane in general. We’re super proud that we managed to make something that inspires ourselves in different ways and it would be incredible if that would also be the case for others. But apart from that, this release also marks the conclusion of the first “book” of the DROELOE project, onto the first chapter of the next book.” — DROELOE

While this concludes everything on the anthology proper, there are two more songs apart of this collection. These two songs are hidden tracks on the vinyl release of the anthology. The first is “Many Words - Reimagined” one of band’s most popular singles that released in 2018 and had a variety of remixes. It’s one of my favorites by DROELOE and I’m glad it’s on this anthology in some form.

And last but not least is the track “Three Seasons”. While I can’t find any official mention of this track anywhere, nor any information about it. The description of the YouTube video says the following: “It’s about how unapologetic the passing of time can be, and that’s fine and also beautiful in a way” – DROELOE. While I can’t confirm or deny this, the track feels very nostalgic, almost as if it’s recreating the sounds of an old cartoon.

Final Thoughts

It was difficult writing a review for this album. It's an album that spans 3 years of music from the band, consisting of 29 songs, 31 if you include the two bonus tracks. With many of the tracks being instrumentals, and even the ones with lyrics have just a couple of words. It's hard to process such an anthology. There's so much left to be said, but you can't say much about the instrumentation other than just incredible use of synths. With instrumental tracks, the more important thing is how you relay emotion, and that's something DROELOE has mastered. I could go on and on about how incredible the artwork is too. The art for this collection as a whole uses the same perspective with the cubes on the block of amber that reflect those of the EPs, featuring a 1-point perspective, a 2-point perspective, and one featuring a maze-like structure.

I also have an extreme bias toward this anthology. I feel as if anything I can say will not be able to do any of the songs on here justice. I've listened to all of these EPs countless number of times, I own the anthology on vinyl, and I even have the album art of “The Choices We Face” hanging on my wall. I feel like I've written more of an analysis than a review at this point, but if I haven't been able to convince you to listen to at least one of these songs, then I don't think you ever will.

References:
billboard: Droeloe Talks 'Virtual Friends' Video & Touring as Solo Act: Exclusive | Billboard
DROELOE: DROELOE - A Matter of Perspective Museum (Full Audio-Visual Experience)
I AM HEIN HAMERS — Freelance Motion Designer: I AM HEIN HAMERS — Freelance Motion Designer

Anthology Score: 10/10
Favorite Tracks: “Panorama”, “Sunburn”, “Weird Machine”, “Virtual Friends”, “Grind & Hustle”, “Push Through”

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