The latest album from psychedelic yankees, Prince Rama will push you out the door on a journey into the wilderness. Five minutes into your first listen of the newest addition to the Paw Tracks team will encapsulate any mortal into a sphere of spiralling winds, dust and ecstasy.
Mood-setters of ‘Om Mane Padme Hum’ and ‘Om Namo Shivaya’, lay the first pave stones and throw the listener head first down the rabbit hole, unconscious and immersed in the complexity of an array congos and bongos, djembes and timbales all carefully entwined with subtle synth work by Michael Collins and Taraka Larson.
A homage to Scott Fitzgerald and his powerful 1989 song “Thunderdrums” follows, in the form of the accordingly named, ‘Thunderdrums’. Jarring electric guitar accompanied by feral-like chants open the track and lead into an echoing verse eventually swallowed by the punching Fitzgerald mid-section.
As the battlefield of ‘Thunderdrums’ subsides a real double A-Side couple of tracks commence, beginning with ‘Storm Worship’, a tentative thriller with masterful additional drums from Paw Tracks predecessors Josh Dibb and Dave Portner. Expert mixing from Dibb and Rusty Santos instigate the listener toward the smash of ‘Lightening Fossil’: a track destined to inflame any dance floor through it’s majestic pulse and unpredictable flow of powerful synth lines and effective harmonies.
The two tracks that follow seem to break the flow slightly, but that’s just in comparison. Individually ‘Mythras’ and ‘Satt Nam’ offer anthemic, synergetic rhythms for the prior and an insight into what’s lurking in the dark corners of “Prince Rama’s” mind for the latter. We can only imagine the difficulty in trying to find accommodation for these beautiful, erratic tracks. Anyway, all will be forgotten and disregarded in a minute or so...
The absolute eruption of Shadow Temple is with ‘Raghupati’; this glorious climax reigns supreme in its adoration and passion - fast paced drums ignite the euphoric harmonies and the lush synthesizer twirls and brushes. This song will dough-up the brains of a whole crowd and mould their personalities into idol adoring sun-lovers relishing the delights of the immortal goodness and power of the musical gods which they behold.
Paw Tracks have stumbled upon gold here and it is strongly suggested that you spend not a day more without Prince Rama in your lives. Each vibration excels in prowess and offers more than merely presence and atmosphere, especially as a live performance. Shadow Temple is an omnipotent Incan God and we will obey. - Henry Johns
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