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Rope Trick Premiere Demo Track “Vivid”; East and West Coast Tours Announced

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Comprised of Queen Elephantine members Indrayudh Shome and Nathanael Totushek, one shouldn’t be entirely surprised to find that the new duo Rope Trick have some experimental underpinnings. There’s only so much one can or even should bother trying to fight that impulse, frankly. But while Shome and Totushek‘s other outfit is known for droning meditative sprawl, fully ritualized and spacious as heard on their latest outing, Kala (review here), which came out this fall through Argonauta Records and a slew of others, Rope Trick‘s three-song debut demo, Red Tapes, finds them a little more down-to-business and feels aimed more toward exploring direct instrumental and rhythmic chemistry than sonic spiritualism — though one could easily argue they’re the same to some degree when done right. And fair enough. Its half-hour run through the songs “Vivid” (10:32), “Soothsayer” (7:07) and “Comedown” (12:28) is marked by low-end groove and swells of volume and thrust — see the emergent lurch of the finale’s ’90s-style chug — and Shome‘s layered chant. Nobody’s credited with bass, and indeed there might not be any, but you’d never know that hearing the material itself, which is duly thick and forceful in its presentation in spite of a raw recording fitting to a demo aesthetic.

While they’re quite clearly just starting out with these songs, feeling their way through an initial release and crafting material after what seems to have been a process of stripping projects like Queen Elephantine and Throne in the Void of the Hundred Petal Lotus down to their essential cores, Shome and Totushek unquestionably benefit from their prior time playing together. And if that wasn’t the case, you’d know it almost immediately between the duo format of Rope Trick and the rough edges the demo provides. But listening to the rollout of “Vivid,” which invites listeners along with its bounce of drums and flourish of almost surf-style guitar, topped by drawn-out vocals from Shome — a track that’s gradually developing but not moving slowly by any means — the experience and knowledge from each party of how the other works makes transitions like that circa three minutes in, when they switch to the starts and stops and embark on a forward build from there, is what’s making the whole thing go. It’s no less true on “Soothsayer” or “Comedown,” and especially as their first outing, it’s a crucial component that one hopes will continue to be a key expression of the band as they move on from here in developing the ebbs and flows like that which bring “Vivid” to a standstill in its second half only to have it rise again and drive more intensely toward its conclusion; jazzy, loose-swinging, but never without a sense of direction behind it. Maybe even a little funky? Maybe.

To go with the debut demo release of Red TapesRope Trick are announcing tour dates on both coasts. They’ll be joined on the stints by It’s Not Night: It’s Space and River Cult and Darsombra, so good company kept all around, and you’ll find the dates included under the player below, by means of which you can hear the premiere of “Vivid” now.

I hope you enjoy:

rope trick tour dates

ROPE TRICK has put out a demo dubbed “Red Tapes” and announced US tour dates for Spring 2017. They are looking for a label to sign their first album and have ambitions to tour Europe as well as Asia in the Summer.

They have an East Coast US tour coming up in January with It’s Not Night It’s Space, an East Coast US tour in the works for March, and a West Coast tour in April.

JANUARY
01/04 – Boston MA, O’Brien’s*
01/05 – Dover NH, Needful Things*
01/06 – Poughkeepsie NY, Darkside Records**
01/07 – Brooklyn NY, Cobra Club**
01/08 – Providence RI, Aurora**
01/14 – Providence RI, AS220 – Live Film Scoring Festival
01/15 – Philadelphia PA, Kung Fu Necktie*
*w/ It’s Not Night: It’s Space
**w/ It’s Not Night: It’s Space + River Cult

MARCH-APRIL
03/23 – Boston, MA (TBC)
03/24 – Northampton, MA (TBC)
03/25 – Montreal, QC, CAN (TBC)
03/30 – Providence RI, AS220*
03/31 – Brooklyn NY (TBC)*
04/01 – Philadelphia PA, Kung Fu Necktie*
04/02 – Baltimore MD (TBC)*
04/14 – Seattle WA (TBC)
04/15 – Portand OR, High Water Mark
04/16 – Eugene OR, Old Nick’s
04/18 – Sacramento (TBA)
04/20 – Oakland CA, Golden Bull
04/21-22 – Los Angeles CA (TBA)
*w/ darsombra

Rope Trick is:
Indrayudh Shome: guitar + vocal
Nathanael Totushek: drums

Rope Trick on Bandcamp

Rope Trick on Thee Facebooks

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