Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Sweaty and magic, 10 Sep 2008
According to the label Asthmatic Kitty, the recipe for Rafter's latest dance-heavy EP is:
2 gallons Magic 92.5 San Diego's Old School
4 packages of dancing w/my hot girl @ the nightclub
Sprinkle of math metal
It pretty much hits the mark, actually. After the schizophrenic folk experience of his first album and the experimental wackfest of his second, Rafter goes full-out on the whole dance thing. Of course, since he's still very much Rafter, he crams "Sweaty Magic" with wild psychedelic rhythms and heavy electronic beats, as well as a folky start to one song and a plethora of strange sound effects. It is magic, and it might make you sweaty.
It kicks off on a high note with "Noise," which undulates through a swaying colourful storm punctuated by guitars and flexible beats, before hitting a higher point yet with "Magic." Lots of heavy thumping beats worthy of any respectable rave swathed in swells of dramatic synth, twittering squeaks and some truly insane drums. He sings under it, "I think it's magic/cuz it makes me mystified... watching as it comes alive/electric sweat, watch as it comes alive!" but you can barely hear him.
Rather than burning out his readers, Rafter then switches over to a gentle folkpoppy melody that mutates as it's invaded by wah-wah blats of dancy electronica, dense thickets of clattering bells and sinuous tropical dance, schizoid guitarpop that synth-creaks like a pond full of bullfrogs, and convulsive sputtering pop numbers filled with high-pitched protests ("She is MY girlfriend!"). Finally he switches over to "Heat," a low urgent pop number full of draggy-fingered riffs that somehow becomes insanely catchy after a little while.
Rafter was always a good listen, but "Sweaty Magic" takes his mad, colourful sound to a whole new level. It's only seven songs long, but almost everything gels beautifully from the first song onward, happily blending indie-rock, pop, tropicalia, funk, folk, electronica, and a hint of psychedelic mayhem into a long feverish blob. Think midnight beach party on another planet -- that's what it sounds like.
Even the least endearing song on the album -- the angular eruption known as "Sassy" -- is full of volcanic energy. Rafter takes powerful riffs that can sputter, rumble and ripple and intertwines them with creative, colourful zings, strings, burps and blobs of synth. Then he paints those on wild techno beats that grow more distorted as the song grows dancier, and he smashes the resulting melodies with sharp drums, weird sound effects (is that an alien bullfrog I hear all through "Salt"?) and little touches like bells. It's incredible that something so densely solid could be so much fun.
Rafter himself is a somewhat nebulous presence behind the music, with his soft high voice drifting through the music and often getting swallowed by his own melodies -- "Sweat" practically eats him alive. But he does a pretty good job all throughout -- sometimes murmuring gently that "you gotta live for your blessings/or they won't happen/they won't happen at all," and sometimes just sort of river-rafting through a happy cacophony. Either way, his voice is the icing on the proverbial cake.
Rafter has hit a new high with the deliciously "Sweaty Magic," and this EP leaves you deliriously hungry for more of his wacked-out psychedelic funk-pop-folk-rock. Definitely worth listening to.
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