reviews / 2010

RANGDA - False Flag

Name: RANGDA – False Flag
Item: False Flag
Rating: 5.5
Author: Francesco Nunziata

2010 (Drag City)

free psychedelia, power-rock

by Francesco Nunziata

5.5

Ben Chasny, Chris Corsano and Richard Bishop, all together with gusto.

Rangda is a project born almost by chance last year and carried forward through recordings swapped over email, which says a lot about the off-the-cuff nature of the work. Not that "False Flag" is a bad record, but rather one of those works that largely comes and goes without leaving much of a mark.

There's plenty of brute-force showmanship inside, as with the tornado in pure Comets On Fire style that is "Waldorf Hysteria", the thundering apotheosis of "Serrated Edges", or again "Fist Family", where the guitars clash dissonantly in unison while Corsano pounds obsessively at his drums. Stuff that might leave you baffled for a few moments, only to then show its seams, revealing no small dose of self-indulgence.

All things considered, the three seem far more inspired in the more relaxed moments: the march, now frantic now hypnotic, of "Bull Lore" (which combines psychedelic vanishing points with Morricone-esque visions), the atmospheric minimalism of "Sarcophagi" (pure frontier spirit transfigured into a sprawling, pensive, wandering fresco) and, above all, the long lysergic meditation (Jerry Garcia, if you're out there give us a sign!) of "Plain of Jars".

But it's still, all in all, fundamentally harmless stuff.

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14/07/2010

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Francesco Nunziata, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition