Has it really been almost five years since I saw Raccoo-oo-oon at the Smell? I always laughed at old people who would warn me that time flies once college ends, but god damn if that isn’t true. At the time I said of their set, “Phenomenal…they had a little PA speaker set up behind their drummer (who had his back to the side wall, near the front of the stage) that was pointed diagonally into the crowd. The keyboard effects and vocals were sent through this little PA, and my ears still have a slight ring from the few songs I spent standing next to it. They were exactly what I expected: chirping, screaming, in-your-face, with a dual-drum attack on several songs. Stunning!”
The Cave Of Spirits Forever was released by Time-Lag Records in a limited edition of 1000 copies way back in 2006. At the time of its release, I learned about it from the venerable Aquarius Records in San Francisco. Their mail order new arrivals list keyed me into what would become my first foray into the world of Raccoo-oo-oon:
“…?It’s a sweaty, snarling, slithering chunk or rawk, barbed blasts of pounding angular new wave garagestomp, fuzzy. murky production, a clattering kitchen sink drum kit, super blown out, scrabbly psych guitar and howled crazyman vocals. Like the Make-Up if they had been attacked by an actual raccoon with rabies, and then forced to play anyway, twitching and frothing at the mouth. ?But the rock then dissipate, as if Raccoo-Oo-Oon got it out of their system, at least for the most part. The next track is a weird lo-fi jazzy shuffle, with a warm horn melody, big simple drumming, like a free folk / free jazz mashup. The next track takes off in yet another direction entirely, a blown out guitarscape, drenched in sun dappled reverb and sizzling cymbal shimmer, so dreamy and drifty. The rest of the tracks sort of meander and wander, through sunny meadows, and shaded woods, fluttering flutes, shimmering guitars, warm wheezing organs, drifting horns, occasionally little fragments of that opening rock song resurface, a brief blast of super punishing riffing, only to be quickly dragged back down and picked apart, the various bits and pieces reincorporated into the dreamlike sound, spread out and stretched into more and more layers of sound, tripped out, schizophrenic, psychedelic and pretty fucking great!”
Enjoy!
Raccoo-oo-oon
The Cave Of Spirits Forever
(Time-Lag, 2006)
MediaFire DL Link
01. Cave Of Spirits
02. Under The Deck
03. On The Roof
04. Stick Eaters
05. Hundred Eyes
06. Forever
07. In The Woods
