Recalling a diverse blend of new-wave and no-wave, underground and alternative sounds from the early eighties gold age, as seemingly unconnected as Gang of Four, Fugazi, dEUS, and Sonic Youth, “Shopping” is a wonderful and indeed wonderfully strange beast. And if those bands listed above don’t seem to have much of an overlap, and perhaps there isn’t, but if there is a place where such opposites do attract, it is found in the quirk and shimmer, oddness and infectiousness of Eric Sabatino’s songwriting and Rayon’s latest single.
It’s like holding a gem up to the light and seeing which sheen or colour you see first. Turn it one way and the chirpy indie sound leads the way; tilt it another, and you pick up the background alt-rock roar; move it again, and it becomes a strange take on lush, dreamy pop, and so on.
A tongue-in-cheek commentary on consumerism, it is the video that underlines the ridiculousness of the whole Pavlovian cash-till-ring shopping experience, a Super 8 video showcase of grocery-store antics that both highlight the sacred ritual and the total ridiculousness of it all.
Its traveling companion is “Running,” a frantic, frenetic, anxious, and animated sonic speedball that explores the idea of watching people you love struggle with their addictions. And just when you have got to grips with its jittery sounds, it throws the listener a curveball and reinvents itself into a hallucinogenic, psychedelic soundscape outro.
Of course this may be the brain child of Eric Sabatino, but Rayon now also involves members of Sun Atoms, Yuvees, Pastilla and Martha Stax – namely Anna Sabatino, Riley McLaughlin, Eric Rubalcava and Derek Longoria-Gomez, and continuing the team effort, the album was mixed with the help of recording engineer Larry Crane at Jackpot Recording and Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Mastering.
This brace of songs would have stood apart from the pack as being totally unique and brilliantly outsider had they been released in that post-punk age. They stand apart from the music of today too…for all the right reasons.
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