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Rasputina's latest release Oh Perilous World, produced
by the group's creator, lead singer, and cellist Melora Creager
and record producer Charlie Campbell (Tess Wiley, Takeovers),
is a collection that subscribes to an avant garde vibe conceived by
classic, melodic, and Gothic garnishes. Creager and her partners,
drummer Jonathan TeBeest and second chair and harmony vocalist
Sarah Bowman, produce an alloy of chamber pop and Goth rock
extractions that pull together opposites depicting both campy and
sophisticated, melodic and dissonant, heavenly bright and hellishly
snarling. At certain points the music has a fairytale quality and
at other turns, it becomes stinging and volatile. The songs create
a fantasy realm like the destruction of Fallujah represented in the
song "In Old Yellowcake" and the world learning about it
in the track "Old Yellowcake Breaking News." The lyrics
are fluid and poetic and succinctly swing into being abstract and
razor sharp, slicing through the melodic phrases.
Rasputina has always been like this since Creager began the group
in New York City during the mid-'90s after opening for Nirvana
on their In Utero tour. Though the group remains steadfast
in chamber rock, Rasputina continues to tap into new material that
world events inspire. What has kept Rasputina evolving is that the
world is forever changing while they stay steady through the inclement
changes.
Rasputina's specialty is in the way they expand the brushed strokes
and plucking of the cello to sound like an amplified guitar, a choir
of sitars, rattling tambourines, or the echoing passages of a synthesizer.
The band produces Oriental-tinged textures and tabla modulated percussions
on numbers like "1816 The Year Without A Summer," "We
Stay Behind," and "Child Soldier Rebellion" while the
delicate drum rolls and swirling strings on "The Pruning"
create a fairytale gale. The winded tango rhythms on "The Infidel
Is Me" pulsate seductively along to Creager's vocals with a lively
rapport and visceral precision, whereas her vocals and the xylophone
registers on "Oh Bring Back The Egg Unbroken" project a
séance-imbued trance. Creager's vocals float in and out of
the melody like an apparition as the instrumentation creates a banshee-like
dance for the oracle-toned lyrics garnering a theatrical pop sensibility
with the likes of The Dresden Dolls.
Creager's vocal dips and toy-like recorder registers on "Cage
In A Cave" have a catchy jingle momentum that makes the tune
fun. Her animated vocal hooks on "Incident In A Medical Clinic"
have a Goth-metal cackle with chamber-fifed strings sowing a theatrical
pop atmosphere which turns into a punk rock scheme on "In Old
Yellowcake", suspending tangling strings as Creager's rapid vocals
stir up the procession. What is fascinating about Creager's vocals
is that she is so animated, managing amazing feats and yet it's so
deceptively accessible, making it seem possible for anyone to sing
like that. Similar to the flips of a professional trapeze artist,
the moves are difficult but Creager projects her voice in a way that
entices others to reach for those feats. Another charm that Rasputina
possesses.
The lyrics are poignant, giving the melodies more substance like
in the song "Child Soldier Rebellion" which is about an
African children's army: "The younger they are the more fearless/
But they were betrayed by merchants who offered seven ships/ 'We were
maimed, tortured and kidnapped. They cut off ears, limbs, and lips'/
Oh my dears, when they hear the news that's been written in tears/
They will know there's no way to excuse the lies that were used to
force them to fight." The lyrics speak for those who lack a position
of power and have been oppressed by those who hold power, sometimes
the lyrics speak from the point of view of the powerful like in "Choose
Me For A Champion." The lyrics are spooky and compassionate and
tear into society's positive image which Rasputina reveals are mere
fabrications.
Rasputina has a reputation for portraying feminine icons garbed in
"Victorian White" bloomers, corsets, and hoopskirts. Their
music can be both coarse and mellifluous, pristine and frolicking,
oscillating between portraying childlike wonderment and dreadful nightmares.
The songs show a trance-like state and sharp witted instincts which
remain a vital part of the group's substance. No one does it like
Rasputina, and yet the group plays as if everyone can do what they
do.
-Susan Frances
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