Raudive - Ghost Box

by Jon Rogers

published: 7 / 10 / 2009

Label: Sugabeet Stallion
Format: CD

Promising debeut mini-album from dark sounding Cambridge post punks, the Raudive

Review

Science and rock haven’t really been the cosiest of bed fellows. Men in white coats or even a nice sensible jumper and a nice bushy beard don’t really fit with the likes of drinking Jack Daniels with a hotel room full of groupies into the early hours. But this Cambridge trio seem to want to change that, taking their name from Latvian writer and scientist Konstantin Raudive who was a disciple of Carl Jung and interested in parapsychology. Some of his ideas were a little far-fetched. Like his Ghost Box whereby dead air could be recorded and so pick up the voices of the dead. Fortunately the debut mini-album doesn’t contain any such crackpot ideas just six solid rock songs that build up on the trail left by the likes of Husker Du at their most melodic, Sebadoh and Mission of Burma. So a good, solid – if little predictable – rock heritage. And like a lot of rock trios they punch way above their weight. The Raudive play taut, straight forward rock but with a slightly darker tone than usual, neatly captured in both the opening song ‘Warning’ and the closing ‘Torch Song’ where they break away from the rock conventions and tentatively move into more interesting areas and bring in a more experimental edge, like a free form Sonic Youth. At times though the Raudive stick to convention. ‘I’m Control’ and ‘Under the Willows’ lack imagination and follow a tried and tested path of verse-chorus-guitar solo. But Marc Atkinson, Danny Davies and Chris Watson add enough youthful energy and enthusiasm that this can be over-looked. Where ‘Ghost Box’ suffers is possibly a lack of financial backing. A decent studio and a producer who knows what they’re doing could turn the trio into something far more appealing than they are. And they appeal already. But a controlling hand twiddling the knobs bringing out the nuances more would improve things no end. At times ‘Ghost Box’ sounds flat and rather limp whereas it should sparkle and fizz but the Raudive show promise. One to watch.