Raf & O - Has The Air Gone Walking? EP Review
With a new EP set for release in September, Raf and O make some interesting art. They are three strong; Raf Mantelli (vocals, juno and samples), Richard Smith (bass and vocals) and Graham Dowdall (Dids aka Gagarin) - electronic drums/ percussions & atmospheres. Raf played in Eye-Sis in the late nineties with Richard. They had a unique underground sound with considerable influence, they numbered the late Charlie Gillett as one of many admirers. Richard had played with Ted Hawkins amongst others. Dids paid his dues in many bands, including stints with John Cale as well as Nico and The Faction. His electronic experimental alter ego, Gagarin has releases on the Geo label and collaborated with Pere Ubu. The three met in south east London, clicked and formed Raf and O. They have been busy gigging, with the likes of Faust, Robert Logan and Alabama 3.
Their new EP is due out September time, with label details being finalised as I write..................I wrote this pre-release review after hearing Has The Air Gone Walking ? EP a week or two ago.
The opening track, Sky, unfolds and sets Raf and O`s scene. You can feel the smouldering undercurrents smoking right up through the soles of your feet, the bass bottom end floorboards popping the nails out, pinging sharp against the walls in wicked time to the percussions rhythm stutter. And a voice like hot water whisky and brown sugar sets the scene and soothes the heavy tired mind.
Cycad conjoures up a submarine sonar set to roaming random shuffle, the subversive echoes the suggestive voice vocal. In that underwater silence, there is so much to listen to........Somewhere a bass guitar cries deep and way down from the bottom of its dark soul. Backstage door slams shut in the dark. Shady deals are hammered out to a throbbing sound of electronic rhythm, in all its frozen freeze framed glory.
7 Blue hitches a ride to the glitch rich bip hop.... with a chorus building and harmony laden, twisting and corkscrewing to the knife edge of seasons reason. Squeezebox seeps from the speakers, the soundtrack to a walk on a tighrope high up above a sprawling forest. The frozen branches snap, frost flies and gravity pulls everything sonic through the air down South. And in that place a honey rich voice warms you, quickening spirits of rhythm and signalling that Raf and O`s musical circle remains unbroken.
This EP is a vital piece of sonic sculpture, crucial in its vocal intricacy, anchored bottom end and rythmic chatter. It is an EP that will send you on a journey, a voyage that is at once epic and chilled. The 4 tracks drip with an urban claustrophobia. Once your ears lock onto these tracks, Raf and O`s infectious grooves and vibe reveal a sweet-sounding antidote that feels at times so spacious it resolves the tensions and calms the psyche.
Raf and O swing on Myspace
"tactical guerilla facilitation within the (+/-)pop culture Dow Seng"
