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San Diego's Castanets, fronted by Raymond Raposa, debuted with a
short album, Cathedral (Asthmatic Kitty, 2004), that offered a
gloomy fusion of alt-country, slo-core and digital production.
They often sound like a cross between
Morphine and
Idaho, with
Rufus Wainwright
sprinkling sound effects on their ballads.
churning out post-blues dirges at a snail's pace, they deposit
No Light To Be Found,
Three Days Four Nights, As You Do, We Are The Wreckage,
You are the Blood deep into the listener's consciousness.
Raymond Raposa also plays on
Liz Janes' Poison And Snakes (Asthmatic, 2005).
The Castanets' second album, First Light's Freeze (Asthmatic Kitty, 2005),
continued the first album's introverted exploration of moods, adding a
broader range of styles, from the
hyper-minimal Good Friend Yr Hunger to the rocking
A Song Is Not The Song Of The World.
In between are the songs that represent the core of
Raposa's art, Dancing With Someone and Bells Aloud.
Tracks:
Cathedral 2 (Your Feet on the Floor Sounding Like the Rain),
Just to Break Free From a Hundred Families,
Industry and Snow,
You Are the Blood,
No Light to Be Found (Fare Thee Well Faith, The Path Is Yours),
Three Days, Four Nights,
As You Do,
Cathedral 3 (Make Us New),
Smallest Bones, The,
We Are the Wreckage,
Cathedral 4 (The Unbreaking Branch and Song),
In The Vines (Asthmatic Kitty, 2007) reestablished
Raposa as the visionary existentialist he had been on the debut album.
The material was generally more poignant, but more importantly he had refined
the dynamic side of the equation, accompanying the storytelling with
matching sound development, notably in
Rain Will Come, that toys first with acoustic calm and then with
apocalyptic noise, and the
six-minute Three Months Paid, drenched in a disorienting electronic soundscape.
Tracks:
Rain Will Come,
This Is the Early Game,
Westbound, Blue,
Strong Animal,
Sway,
Fields Crack, The,
Three Months Paid,
Night Is When You Can Not See, The,
Sounded Like a Train, Wasn't a Train,
And the Swimming,
City of Refuge (2008) was disappointing in terms of content and
atmosphere, despite a few moments of pathos
(The Destroyer, Prettiest Chain, After the Fall).
His soul seemed to resonate more profoundly with the
guitar instrumentals, Celestial Shore and the psychedelic The Quiet.
Texas Rose, The Thaw & The Beasts (2009), that features
Rocket from the Crypt's Jason Crane and Black Heart Procession's Pall Jenkins,
is a vastly more eclectic work, even venturing into
synth-pop with Worn from the Fight and disco-pop with Lucky Old Moon,
running the gamut from the hard-rocking No Trouble to the
torch ballad Down the Line Love.
The spartan folk of My Heart and On Beginning connects with
the introverted Castanets of yore, and perhaps it's
the gloomy alt-country of Rose and Dance Dance that truly
steals the show.
Tracks:
01 Rose
02 On Beginning
03 My Heart
04 Worn From The Fight (With Fireworks)
05 No Trouble
06 Thaw And The Beasts
07 We Kept Our Kitchen Clean And Our Dreaming Quiet
08 Down The Line, Love
09 Lucky Old Moon
10 Ignorance is Blues
11 Dance, Dance
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da Tobia D’Onofrio)
I Castanets, gruppo di San Diego guidato dal frontman Raymond Raposa, hanno esordito con un album breve, Cathedral (Asthmatic Kitty, 2004), che offre una tenebrosa fusione di alt-country, slo-core e produzione digitale. Spesso sembrano un incrocio tra Morphine e Idaho, con Rufus Wainwright che vela con effetti sonori le loro ballate. Producendo canti funebri post-blues a passo di lumaca, riescono a depositare nei meandri della coscienza dell’ascoltatore pezzi come No Light To Be Found, Three Days Four Nights, As You Do, We Are The Wreckage, You are the Blood.
Raymond Raposa suona anche nell’album di Liz Janes Poison And Snakes (Asthmatic Kitty, 2005).
Il secondo album dei Castanets, First Light’s Freeze (Asthmatic Kitty, 2005), continua nell’introversa esplorazione di stati d’animo che era cominciata nel primo disco, ma utilizza una più ampia tavolozza di stili, variando dalla iper-mimimale Good Friend Yr Hunger, alla potentissima A Song Is Not The Song Of The World. A metà strada ci sono i pezzi che rappresentano il cuore dell’arte di Raposa, Dancing With Someone e Bells Aloud.
In The Vines (Asthmatic Kitty, 2007) ha riconsacrato Raposa come l’esistenzialista visionario che si era rivelato nell’album d’esordio. Il materiale è generalmente un po’ più intenso, ma la cosa più importante è come egli abbia rifinito la parte dinamica dell’equazione, accompagnando il cantautorato con appropriati sviluppi sonori, riuscendo particolarmente in Rain Will Come, che si diverte prima con calma acustica e poi con rumore apocalittico, e nei sei minuti di Three Months Paid, pervasi da una disorientante atmosfera elettronica.
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