Castanets are actually an ‘is’: Raymond Raposa from San Diego. I’ve been following him from the first record on Asthmatic Kitty records (label of Sufjan Stevens): 2004’s Cathedral. The music is folk in its essence but it has a few twists and turns. Like some added psychedelia that goes towards the direction of early Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett, right) and electronica. Experimental, we could say. Like add some drugs to No Country for Old Men and that’s the feel. Dust everywhere, dead towns in the wild west with electric stroms howling over them…and a man in an old, rusty car with the devil on the backseat. The driver is him, the songwriter. A haunting voice and melodies that earn the label ‘freak folk’ or ‘gothic country’. The new album City of Refuge has a great title, it describes the concept perfectly. Coming out on the 7th of October, it’s a product of weeks alone in a desert motel, somewhere in Nevada. Refuge and peace, still life and still death characterize this new piece. The last song After the Fall might be the most traditionally folk-singer/songwriter thing but it’s beautiful (is that Sufjan on the backing vocals?) and sums it up: “and if I’d known were we were goin I would not have gone at all there was no way of knowing that much after the fall”

Castanets - After the Fall [zshare] // [ysi]

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 1:55 pm and is filed under castanets, gothic country, freak folk, us.