RAIME – We Can´t Be That Far From The Beginning

Continuing their run of EPs and widening their scope, Raime´s return with "We Can´t Be That Far From The Beginning" isn´t just another turn in this progression, but sees the UK duo starting their own label RR and opening up anticipation for more to come and maybe even other artists to rise. While Am I Using Content or Is Content Using Me? saw Raime opening their style up for the unimaginable flood of information, snippets, and samples in an unusually reggeaton colored palette, We Can´t Be That Far builds on these experiences while folding back on elements of their studio albums.

From the start "In Media Res" is the seamless connection to Am I Using Content: The chromatic stutter winds up before being underlined with a bouncy synth line. However, a departure is imminent after only a minute. The vocal sample "I am tired" peaks in repetition and a call and response like scheme, underlined by strings and a complete dissolution of any repetition, beat or melody. The clutter, stagger, synth rises, and vocal samples become scenographic in a sense. Action unfolds, the vocals disintegrate into screams, snippets and utterances of surprise. The elements of meaning swell, turn viscerally and abstract. 

Following track "Do I Stutter" furthers these story-like elements. The utterance "I think I went to far" starts off a conversation with the reggaeton drum beat becoming a synthetic plucking sound reminiscent of the guitar in Tooth. Other elements of their previous work show their uncanny face in shrewd ways, too. The droning bass, the eerie noise stutter together, picking up the pace and fuse with the vocals. The voices appear ripped from trash T and serious dramas alike and deliver snapshots of emotion in such minute ways, that their shrouded affective qualities strip off any context. These talking elements, clear words, and sentences lend an even more frantic and haunting feel to Raime´s instrumentals, providing an abstract turn from the club-based and floating offerings of Am I Using Content. 

The last track completly abadons any traces of a beat and goes into full soundtrack mode. "See Throug Me, I Dare You" feels reminiscent of a less classically inclined Johannsson, with the sharp synth-lines and huge cello vibe delivering just enough known sounds to complement the offsetting crashes of sound and noise. If anything, Raime close the cycle of their work in returning to the best aspects of both Tooth and their first full-length Quarter Turns Over A Living Line. They channel the flood of information, answer the question of their previous EP by "using the content" in processing the signals, going atmospheric and ephemeral again while resurfacing strings or the sick tribalist chimes at the end of the track. Throughout these three tracks, there is a tension and soundplay that can only be achieved by shattering structures and sounds and within the growing emphasis on vocals the sonics fall in and out of conversation – telling of dread fused with the unabashed exhibition thereof.