Remember that point after the Postal Service record came out when all sorts of dudes made their acoustic guitar sound vaguely processed and everyone was supposed to like it because it was a perfect union of the electronic and the organic? Snooze City! We bring that up because Ray Raposa bka Castanets has been using that technique pretty much since he first starting putting albums out. Only difference is that he does it with restraint and he does it well. "On Beginning" is built on a series of rapidly pulsing steel drums sped up to sound like blinking stars and—of course—Raposa's nasal, fractured voice. Video wise, this could have been made on MS Paint, until you realize that some of those floating circles actually contain images of trees, tiny little worlds floating around the soothing, sterile white background. Is this what it's like to go to an expensive rehab center? Castanets' Texas Rose, The Thaw, & The Beasts is out today.
