What do you get when you mix post-punk and jazz? Many possibilities arise, yet in listening to the latest full-length from Raven, this writer can’t help answering “krautrock.” But while that genre suggests another time and place (namely, West Germany around 1970), Raven’s new album Secrets is an instrumental dreamscape from San Francisco today.
We’ve waxed poetic about the hypnagogic club work of Raven and their imprint Vaguetracks before (see: Encoded Language by Jade Snake, Dream & Future Spirit by Raven, and User Illusion 2 by Raven), and we’re delighted to hear another wide and spacious curve in the arc of the artist’s evolving sound. There are still traces of nostalgic vaporwave tones that may remind one of logging into the ‘Net after midnight in the late 1990s (“Windows”, “Soir”), but there are also new explorations. Try the downtempo minimalism on “Silhouettes” (sounding as good as Cluster’s best), or the funky buzzing live bass improvisation on “Midnight.” Haunting and beckoning, this work’s tendrils gradually lead you into its alternate world.
