Ray Raposa, the one man army of noise and dirty folk music behind Castanets, has had his share of shit. He finished up In The Vines, as the press release notes, around the time he was mugged outside the Bedford-Stuyvesant townhouse he shares with Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend and Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors. And a few days ago some other assholes knocked the financially and creatively draining nail in the coffin by robbing him and Jana Hunter of all their musical equipment while on tour.
In The Vines is meant to be a sort of mythological autobiography, referencing a Hindu fable “about being trapped in an inescapable fate, with death and the limitations of our physical lives closing in from all corners.” Raposa typifies the young American wanderer, without a steady home (journalist parents living separately in Mexico and Saudia Arabia), and years traveling greyhounds and surfing. His first two LPs, Cathedral and First Light's Freeze, are contemplative forays into dark folk matter that blast away with noise and punk aesthetics at the hinges of Americana.
Quote:
“In The Vines features the community of Jana Hunter, Nonhorse (Vanishing Voice), Rafter Roberts, Nathan Delffs (Shaky Hands), Viking Moses, and Matthew Houck (Phosphorescent). Recently, the live Castanets' community has included such folks as Sufjan Stevens, Nick Delffs (Shaky Hands), Rob Lowe (Lichens) and Annie Clark (St. Vincent). The collective energy conjures up elements of noise, free jazz, black metal and electronic abstractions.”
The album is due for release October 23rd on Asthmatic Kitty.
TRACK LIST
01 RAIN WILL COME
02 THIS IS THE EARLY GAME
03 WESTBOUND, BLUE
04 STRONG ANIMAL
05 SWAY
06 THE FIELDS CRACK
07 THREE MONTHS PAID
08 THE NIGHT IS WHEN YOU CAN NOT SEE
09 SOUNDED LIKE A TRAIN, WASN'T A TRAIN
10 AND THE SWIMMING
