Rhyton

***By the time Rhyton unveiled Krater’s Call on Bandcamp in June of 2020, against the backdrop of a worldwide pandemic and the George Floyd demonstrations, four years had gone by since their last album, Redshift, had been released. These Krater’s Call sessions were tracked in November of 2017 as mere improvisations. It was simply three guys getting together in the studio and doing what they loved to do—jam. This collection of songs, while clearly recognizable as Rhyton’s ever evolving brand of psychedelic meanderings mixed with European, Middle Eastern, and other worldly folk leanings, is a version of Rhyton we hadn’t quite heard before. The playing is quite loose and playful. Some of their past dissonance has been exchanged for warmth. Years of experimentation has led to a familiarity that allows each musician to open spaces in their playing and fall into comfortable grooves. They easily and effortlessly feed off each other’s exploratory wanderings in ways that recall Can or even the Grateful Dead. All of this plays out in a very entrancing fashion, and sees the band flirting within the space between blissful heady daydreaming and the desire to, gulp, dance—something they continue to develop and carry over to 2021’s Pharaonic Crosstalk. Edition of 300 copies.