Racebannon - In the Grips of the Light - Secretly Canadian

Review by: Dave Morgan

Bloomington, Indiana's Racebannon play fucked-up, crazy rock that reminds me (in a good way) of alot of mid-nineties Trance Syndicate bands like, say, Johnboy and The Cherubs. While they don't take themselves as seriously as Johnboy and area good bit more intense than The Cherubs, there is a sonic common thread running here. Add some Jesus Lizard and throw in a dash of Universal Order of Armageddon and speed it up a tad and you can get an idea. I know comparing bands to other bands is a lazy way to write a review but these are the only points of reference that I can latch onto.

On "In the Grips of the Light," their first for Secretly Canadian, they really let the noise sprawl out. Many bands who play stuff like this prefer to be short and sweet, but Racebannon really lets their songs wonder which helps to keep the interest up. Layers of vocals, guitars, weird effects and spacey breakdowns push things in new directions. Its almost prog rock-ish at points.

I've read stuff calling these guys hardcore and/or spazzcore but I'd definitely seperate them from that crew (the Locust, etc...) This is much more interesting and unique than that. A good indicator to where these guys are coming from (going?) is the cover of Captain Beefheart's "Electricity" about halfway into the disc.

The downside is that all the songs kinda run together on record which makes talking about individual songs difficult but makes for a better overall listen. As good as this is recorded, I'd bet its an awesome sight to see live.

Read where Secretly Candian got their name from here.