I discovered Rasputina quite by accident. In high school I belonged to one of those record clubs. You know, you get 48 CDs and all you have to give in return is your first born. Every month they would send this music catalogue, which would have the tiniest, half-sentence blurb about a wide range of artists. I had never heard of Rasputina before, but their description read something like "goth-punk cello trio." I was intrigued, so I read on. It listed one of their songs: "Transylvanian Concubine." I was sold.
Rasputina quickly became one of my favorite bands. They even helped me "meet" my now-husband. We hung out in the same group, but I didn't like him - he was kind of a jerk. One day he asked, in an open question to the group, if anyone had ever heard of the band Rasputina. I immediately chimed in, and instantly earned a bit of respect from him - I was the only one who knew Raspy.
As you can see, Raspy holds a special place in my heart, and always falls into my Top 5 favorite musicians. So when I eagerly jammed their new disc, O, Perlious World into my CD player, I was quite disappointed. I don't mean to be an alarmist; the disc isn't bad, it's just not what I want from a Rasputina album.
O, Perlious World feels far more like a folksy bluegrass album than anything Rasputina has previously put out. This disc features almost no cello songs. Guitars and drums are featured heavily, along with a myriad of other instruments that my ears are too untrained to pick out. I don't necessarily expect a disc loaded with mournful cello crooning (such was their first disc) In fact, I love that each disc they release is an evolution of their sound. But Rasputina is a cello group - I do expect to hear cellos somewhere.
Article comments
1 - King_nero
There are NO GUITARS on this album. cello>compresser mic>input jack>distortion pedal>amplifier>your ears. thats how it works. NO GUITARS.
2 - Stixs
I just got the new Rasputina Album today, I ordered it off their website as soon as it was avalible.
And now listening over it a few times, I totally agree with you that the no one song really sticks out. All the songs are nice to listen to, and the second disk is kind of weird. (Lots of distorted voice stuff but no real singing)
Really I think this is an album that could probably slip by without any reaction, but if your a deep lover of Rasputina this is something else for you to add to your Rasputina cd collection.
So, many changes have been made to the band over the past years .. Maybe its just that they miss Zoe Keating, I know I do.
3 - Ryse
Like King Nero said, there are no guitars on this album, and I'm baffled as to why you would think there was! The distorted rock-like cello in 'Draconian Crackdown' is nothing new to Raspy and shouldn't throw you off, and the more acoustic tracks are /blatantly/ cellos.
Come on, how could you listen to 'Cage in a Cave' or 'In Old Yellowcake' or 'Incident in a Medical Clinic' and think that was a guitar? Madness.