Friday, June 22, 2018

Record Review //
RAKE KASH
"Rake Kash"
(Gertrude Tapes)


$11 //
Edition of 250 //
https://thegertrudetapes.bandcamp.com/album/rake-kash //

Trippy acoustics and a jazz flute start this record.   The second song begins with dark strings, cello, which are accompanied by a piano.  It has a serious vibe to it underneath the trippy electronic swirls.  It feels like a soap opera or perhaps like Lionel Richie will begin singing "Hello".    This brings about cymbals and a sax.    The blaring makes it feel like jazz but there is also this 1990's feeling to it, something from that era which has since been forgotten about and is making its return.    The pianos really begin to shape life into these songs.   Space whirrs are in the background and this feels like some great mix of "Beverly Hills Cop" and Morris Day and The Time.

What feels like a harmonica comes through with these space whirrs that resonate in another galaxy.   If there is not yet a genre for space jazz we might want to look into putting RAKE KASH into it.   I also believe I hear dogs barking.   This has this perfect blend of Americana/folk/jazz in a traditional sense but then these electronic elements which make it feel like it isn't as grassroots as you could imagine someone picking up an acoustic guitar and playing shows out of their car but rather, you know, flying around in a spaceship to other planets and bringing them this homegrown message. 
Serious guitar strums come through now, like a deserted western feel, but yes, you guessed it, those space sounds continue through as well and it gives this feeling of Bob Seger's "Turn The Page" only in a different universe.   The sax slowly blows through as well.   A typewriter can be heard typing now.   It's still a cross between dreamy and eerie.   The sax continues with this windy feel and the typewriter keeps on typing.   To some extent now, it feels as if we might go into "Riders on the Storm" because I'm also thinking of "The Basketball Diaries" soundtrack. 

As we take a dive into what feels like a carousel ride now, this becomes even more surreal.    This is how we are taken from the first to the second side.    What could be a cello again since there is a lot of bass to it comes through with the sax in a rock n roll way.   This then becomes a bit more like a dance, somewhat like Gogol Bordello and somewhat like something I've never heard before.    This is not the easiest record to describe since it does combine various styles that on their own I have sometimes heard before (but not all of them completely) and when combined they form something the likes of which I have never heard before.

The drumming on this is off the wall good, unlike any I've ever heard before and to have it with these sounds of jazz or a spy movie or being in space it's just... elements like the sax or cello can change the mood of the music so the fact that the drumming can keep up with not just the tempo and pacing of it all but the genre changing is truly impressive.     Bass comes through and with it comes what sounds like traffic.   That sax is still there, setting the mood just so. 

It also can just as easily take on this eerie sound as we approach what feels like something out of "Stranger Things" or "X-Files".    Whirrs slice through like space but it maintains that feeling which also makes me feel more like it's a horror movie such as "Friday the 13th" than "The Thing" or "Alien".    Though, oddly enough, as much as you want to think of it that way the final tones do feel as if they just send you sort of drifting off into space, so that idea that this is both in outerspace and yet on Earth makes this record stand out from others which could be one or the other but not usually both.







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