Long before Ra Ra Riot performed a single note of its dancetronic third album, Beta Love (Barsuk), the band talked at great length about the need for a change. The viscerally charged chamber-pop outfit had maintained a steady course after the tragic 2007 drowning death of beloved drummer John Pike, blossomed on its 2008 Barsuk full-length debut, The Rhumb Line, and flourished with a variety of subsequent beatkeepers, but everyone felt the inevitable tug of creative evolution after 2010 sophomore album The Orchard. The roles of violinist Rebecca Zeller and guitarist Milo Bonacci changed the most dramatically; with the dominance of the synthesizer on Beta Love, Bonacci was forced to radically reimagine/rewrite his guitar contributions and take on more expansive sonic duties, while Zeller was freed up to explore new approaches with her instrument and the spare strings the band utilized. Bassist Mathieu Santos will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Ra Ra Riot feature.
Santos: This line of work has its share of perks, to be sure, but one of the perkiest has to be touring with a band that you absolutely love. Ra Ra Riot felt this way about Steve and his band, who, for us, embodied everything we love about music—immediacy, honesty, openness and beauty—and we made sure to catch their set every night we played together. Steve’s music is somehow both spiritual and breezy, and it’s much less about a balance between the two than it is about their complete fusion. His playing is so soulful and lyrical that it’s easy to forget you’re listening to an almost completely instrumental group. He’s got two albums now: Wondervisions, his debut from 2011, and Positive Force, which came out last year. Check out “Redeemer” and “Afria Talks To You.”
Videos after the jump.
