Raymond Raposa Returns with New Castanets Album

BY Josiah HughesPublished Jun 18, 2009

Bearded American psych-folk duder Raymond Raposa has been putting out his eerie, experimental post-country albums as Castanets since 2004's Cathedral. Now, following 2008's excellent City of Refuge LP and the recent Tendrils DVD, Raposa has announced the details of his fourth record.

Titled Texas Rose, The Thaw, and The Beasts, the record will come out on September 22 through Asthmatic Kitty.

Along with the regular press release, Asthmatic Kitty asked author Adam Gnade to describe the record. The full transcript is here, but here's a useful selection of his piece:

The epicness of [Pink] Floyd is there, sure, the majestic production, the walls of mood dripping Tangerine Dream synths, the big prismatic flourishes, but as trippy as the record is, this is not a hippy record. It's not flaky-druggy or consciously "weird" and it's not a '60s throwback. You get the feeling that some of the sweetest moments came from in-studio improvs, but there's nothing arbitrarily placed or jammy for jamming's sake. Instead we've got smart, no-filler country, electronic, and folk songs taken further, expanded with noise and expansive with space flowers of newness.

Texas Rose, The Thaw, and The Beasts:

1. "Rose "
2. "On Beginning"
3. "My Heart "
4. "Worn From The Fight (With Fireworks)"
5. "No Trouble"
6. "Thaw And The Beasts"
7. "We Kept Our Kitchen Clean And Our Dreaming Quiet"
8. "Down The Line, Love"
9. "Lucky Old Moon"
10. "Ignorance is Blues"
11. "Dance, Dance"

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