Land ho or out to sea! It’s a command, not a question. Here we have what would surely be a highly anticipated debut cassette, if anyone knew it existed, by the RRR Band -- a spontaneously spawned improvisational trio consisting of shadow-careerists Ryan Davis, Emily Robb, & Richie Charles.
Rock For Birds, the side-long opener, quickly gets down to outlining a dark and puzzling passage, luring the listener further into its woods one robotic cymbal-smack at a time by way of distantly entrancing, bewitching vocals and hypnotic cacophony...though never without offering a friendly lantern toward the trail.
A pedantic listener may identify elements of no-wave, industrial, folk and even rock herein, but the path ahead is a blurry, gently impulsive, and ultimately genreless one. RFB's pulsing rhythm is a constant, a foundation upon which self-tangling resonator phrases and cubist synth interjections crack and whirr with reckless abandon, abruptly decorating a seemingly foreign if not possessed slew of vocal chanting most closely akin to that of a sleep-talker's tongue. All the while, a tireless and throaty guitar holds our feet in the mud. It's not until the rhythm finally gives up that we’re momentarily set free in the soft mire of the song's ending. But alas, the tape flips and we continue...
On side two, we're met with a coupling of guitar and key notes that meander effortlessly atop a hazily familiar drum machine pitter-patter alongside its supporting cast of off-brand and misplaced percussive sounds. Again, we hear cyclical string variations, defining and resonating a rhythm and melody while gently rocking the listener out of orbit, untethered.
Sparse vocals push through and re-enter, bringing to mind an imaginary Vega/Rev/Ono collab lost to the cutting-room floors of time, or perhaps a mysterious unlabeled reel stolen from the communal kitchen table of some early '70s Träd, Gräs, & Düül II style ritualistic jam-fam phreakers. Alternatively, some listeners may wish to think of this cassette as the probable soundtrack to the film adaptation of To Serve Man, that staple of every cookbook shelf.
It's a uniquely odd universe mapped out and traversed by the RRR Band and All Who Sail With It. They've been heckled just as you and I have and they're offering insight, somewhat gracefully, at last.
credits
released August 8, 2022
recorded in Philadelphia on Halloween '21
Mastered by John Dawson
