Castanets Prep Debut LP for Asthmatic Kitty

The core member of The Castanets, Raymond Raposa, is practiced in the art of nomadic maundering. As the story goes, Raposa tested out of high school at age 15, and spent several years traversing the American expanse from the vantage point of a Greyhound bus. His music is an extension of this poetic experience: A winding, panoramic portrait of an infinite plain. The music is rustic in emphasis, as you might have inferred, but also rife with psychedelic flourishes and experimental interludes. For a point-to-point reference, it might help to imagine a fleshed-out Jason Molina on a vision quest through a dreamscape brought to life by Six Organs of Admittance. Although now that we think about it, that might not help at all.

In any case, the point is that The Castanets will become labelmates of that revered post-millennial folkie, Sufjan Stevens, come October 4th, when their new album, Cathedral, is released via Asthmatic Kitty. On the album, Raposa is joined by members of Rocket from the Crypt, Pinback, Tristeza and other labelmate Liz Janes. Tracklist:

01 Cathedral 2 (Your Feet on the Floor Sounding Like the Rain)
02 Just to Break Free From a Hundred Families
03 Industry and Snow
04 You are the Blood
05 No Light to be Found (Fare Thee Faith, the Path is Yours)
06 Three Days, Four Nights
07 As You Do
08 Cathedral 3 (Make Us New)
09 The Smallest Bones
10 We are the Wreckage
11 Cathedral 4 (The Unbreaking Branch and Song)

Asthmatic Kitty also plans to give The Castanets' first recording, What Kind of Cure, a wide release in the near future; the record was originally available solely on CDR, and distributed no further than Raposa's circle of friends and compatriots, who politely told him it was wonderful. Finally, Raposa is reportedly in the process of writing an as-of-yet untitled novel, with the intention of further exploring Cathedral's thematic mystique.