Rangda

***CHECK STOCK!!! Received a 7.9 rating from Pitchfork. For the second flight of the shadowy witch-god brothers, RANGDA have changed their status from False Flag to Formerly Extinct! Upon examination, there’s reason beyond their rhyme-free wanderings. Since the last album, see, Rangda have been all around this world as the wise men and the fools alike in lands both high and low. They’ve seen the young and invest-less kneel amp-side, waiting for musical succor, then in the next town over they’ve felt the cold chill of being left for dead and seen their music dubbed “so wrong it must be Rangda” strictly for some local pen-lifter’s personal chuckles. How we can even claim that Formerly Extinct displays a greater fluidity than the well-oiled zero-to-60Khz hairpins of False Flag is a matter of debate around DC corporate HQ. It seems to depend on how you define the semi-metallic element of sound sometimes called “sharp.” False Flag featured a tune called “Serrated Edges,” which made sense in the knife-flying arc of that album. Sharp is a claw-like quality in generous supply on Formerly Extinct as well—a graphic picture in sharp focus, perhaps with cleaner edges yet unmistakably gruesome subjects. While False Flag found these slingers in a whirlwinded shred-fest, each trying to out do each other with what they brought to the Rangda lair (er, recording studio), Formerly Extinct blossoms like the home-grown hybrid of a three-headed beast well-practiced in its body. A lean ’n’ amazingly mean, greased-up, child-eating machine. Born to the lower-income caste of the bohemian, Rangda maul the underbelly for fun and profit. Thank Kali that all they need is love! These songs, newfangled and shrouded by ancestral awakenings, bore deep into the layers of consciousness to divine meeting. Like, dig “Majnun,” for instance. Everybody always talks about Layla, but when does anyone ever pull Majnun out the hat? Enter Rangda with sympathy for the obsessed. To them, the Persian wanna-be lover of classical lit and lore is worth more consideration than George Harrison’s ex-wife! That’s the way the Rangda madness lies. There’s no value among the flies of the marketplace—unless you find a copy of Rangda’s latest there. Formerly Extinct lives large, no matter how small the arch overhead. (STREET DATE - 9/18/2012)