As recording and performing technology has gotten cheaper, there's been a wholesale revisiting of the synthy sounds of the mid-80s. At its worst, this excavation has yielded plenty of soulless, robotic machine music—not too dissimilar from the first go-round. But couple a deep love of dub and club sounds, and keen songwriting chops, and you get an artist like Marius Lauber. The musician and DJ known as Roosevelt from Cologne, Germany, has found novel ways of merging dance-heavy rhythms with rock solid song structures, and his understated delivery gives the tunes a kind of wistful, nostalgic quality. Roosevelt's self-titled debut arrived in August as a last blast of summer sunshine, and his band just started a Stateside tour that brings them to the Soundcheck studio.