Rats On Rafts reveal new live track and video from Excerpts From Chapter 3 deluxe edition released 23rd September on Fire Records.
One of the few songs on the album that was created in the studio, Second Born Child (Live at TivoliVrendenburg 2021) pulsates like Moondog with layered vocals filtered through a tape recorder. Accompanied by a new video, this new live version sees the addition of three backing vocalists. Bringing a choral feel to the track with the addition of piano, Rats On Rafts capture the studio atmosphere of the original track.
Excerpts From Chapter 3 revisits their acclaimed third album with newly added B-side ‘Osaka’ and unreleased live music recorded at TivoliVredenburg as part of an interdisciplinary music film last summer with long-time collaborators ‘A Small Production Company’. The live set will be released on super-limited edition on vinyl, 500 units only, while the deluxe digital version will include the live set alongside the album celebrating the band’s upcoming Le Guess Who performance that will see them play the album in its entirety on 10th November.
Initially a concept set, Excerpts From Chapter 3 subsumed itself and, in doing so, became a concept piece in its own right; a fragmented journey into the id punctuated with rhythmic kabuki modal mood swings, thunderstorms and digital beeps reminding that time is ticking – something of an aside in this analogue recorded set. There are voices revealing snippets of the story, traffic noise, and just plain old beautiful cacophonous reverb-drenched sound when needed. It’s light, it’s dark; it’s darker still.
Each song spins a yarn; there are plagues, dreams, wind and fire, ‘mythical’ characters, and the search for the secret government warehouse. Drinking in the sounds of Van Dyke Parks (Song Cycle) Scott Walker (3 & 4), Hawkwind (Space Ritual), White Noise (An Electric Storm), Stano (Content To Write In I Dine Weathercraft) and Pere Ubu (New Picnic Time).
‘Tape Hiss’ was their very own sketch of a sketch for an incomplete concept album, a noisy reaction to their previous life, Excerpts From Chapter 3, with all its interlaced intricacies, is the realisation of their transition from punk-spiked-pop to psyche-pop protagonists.
Deluxe ltd edition (500 copies only) vinyl and digital release
Live Dates
17 Sep: Vicefest, Groningen, NL
10 Nov: Le Guess Who, Utrecht, NL
12 Nov: Zwolle, Hedon, NL
2023
08 Jan: Rockaway Beach, Bognor Regis, UK
