On 7 February Rotterdam-based band Rats on Rafts will release their new studio album Deep Below. The album was recorded in their own studio and will be released worldwide through UK label Fire Records, and in the Netherlands through their own label Kurious Recordings. They recorded the album completely analogue on their 16-track tape recorder with help from Niek van den Driesschen. The new single Japanese Medicine is out now.
Out of the fog emerges a darker, slower, eroded Rats on Rafts. New album Deep Below is less rich in the mood swings of its predecessor 2021’s Excerpts From Chapter 3: The Mind Runs A Net Of Rabbit Paths for the waters have stilled, and barren, fog-strewn wastelands remain. Highlighting different shades within the monochrome landscape compared to their previous, more colourful albums: they dive deeper into their psyche, questioning our relationships with nature, religion and each other. Echoes of The Cure, Cocteau Twins and Slowdive seem present yet so many different influences make up an album that only they could create. It sees Rats On Rafts coming of age whilst raising their heads from the underground.
Forever drifting into new territory, Deep Below is certainly their darkest and most cohesive work to date. True to their analog recording process, the tape machines, reverbs, echoes and vital new ingredients: the Soundcraft 1s mixing desk (used by reggae producer Lee Perry) and the eerie sounding Eminent String Ensemble synth all amplify the authentic sounds of the 1980’s without sounding like a relic. Frontman David Fagan explains: “We didn’t experience the 80’s but look back on the parts we like and more recent music inspired by it. Our music could never have come out this way had it been made back then.”
The new single Japanese Medicine is a haunting minor chord piece driven by debris of icy chiming guitars, galloping drums and waves of lush synths. lyrically it gathers memories of teenage friendship, littered with cigarettes, life-changing records, punctuated with the dark thoughts and the demons they summon up. David Fagan: "Japanese Medicine is aimed at a former version of myself, that person’s gone but occasionally I miss him because life seemed very promising and unpredictable." Watch the video, made by David Kleijwegt and Reinier van Brummelen below. Earlier the band released their single Hibernation.
In February Rats on Rafts will tour the UK after which they will play in the Netherlands in March, followed by a tour throughout Europe:
- 07 March: Rotown, Rotterdam
- 14 March: Vera, Groningen
- 15 March: Merlyn, Nijmegen
- 27 March: Effenaar, Eindhoven
- 28 March: Ekko, Utrecht
- 29 March: Melkweg, Amsterdam
For all show dates visit: www.ratsonrafts.com
