Friday, June 3, 2016

NERD MUSIC Album Spotlight: Xtreme Now by Prince Rama

Prince Rama's 2012 album Top Ten Hits of the End of the World is one of my favorite discoveries of the past few years, a heady mix of aerobics-themed retrowave, Hare Krishna devotional music* and a heavy dose of new age infused psychedelia. True to its name, Top Ten Hits of the End of the World came across like the soundtrack to a millennial version of Heaven's Gate.

Extreme Now is a more daring record in many ways, with the band branching out into chillwave ("Your Life in the End"), synth-folk ("Slip into Nevermore"), Joy Division-style post punk ("Would You Die to be Adored") and the kind of pastiche freakouts that Grimes specializes in ("Now is the Time of Emotion"). Yet every song is, unmistakably, Prince Rama.

Like Top Ten Hits of the End of the World before it, Extreme Now is a head trip--one that alternates transcendental euphoria and apocalyptic foreboding. And if you, like me, are the kind of music listener who craves that kind of consciousness-expanding listening experience, then you won't want to miss this. Highly recommended.


*The members of Prince Rama grew up on a Hare Krishna commune in Florida.


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POSTED BY: The G--purveyor of nerdliness, genre fanatic and Nerds of a Feather founder/administrator, since 2012.