Strange new rumblings from the Nouveau Paris Underground with the debut album of mostly instrumental experiments from Raya 13, a newly formed three piece featuring Les Disuqes Omnison affiliate and HWYUIOD member Shelter, and Brittanny Dubson and Mathieu Deschênes from MOAB. The accompanying biography attempts to position Bardo Rafting within a continuum of experimental French music that harkens back to the post Mai 68, NWW list connected avant rock of Mahogany Brain, Fille Qui Mousse et al, which may be conceptually accurate but not exactly what I hear here. There's a minimalist, almost skeletal approach to composition that frames these tracks in a post-punk/-rock context, perhaps more Chicago-coded than European ala Tortoise, Gastr Del Sol, or Jeff Parker's Isotope 217, while I'd not be surprised if they'd not spent at least a little time familiarising themselves with the impulsive deconstructions of fellow French underground emissaries, CIA Debutante. That said, their sonic palette is a minimal one, mostly guitar, bass and drums amidst the occasional rumbling overdub. Cyclical riffs and repetitions become a prominent feature, guitar figures and overlays chiming and interlocking in various degrees of haunted disharmony, while the odd vocal incantation floats in and out of the murky stereo field. It's a resolutely DIY affair, the kind of music making born of instinctive private experimentation that makes little concession to convention or any kind of imagined audience, and ends up being all the more inviting because of it. Strange new rumblings yes, but equally compelling with it.
FFO: CIA Debutante, France, HWYUIOD, Slint
