I have not visited this address since it was The Space, a non-alcohol venue located in a somewhat dilapidated “house” that was seemingly plopped in the center of the parking lot of the Spaceland Ballroom. Designed as a safe space for teens to coagulate and play video games, it seems to have evolved into a basement small event space, with bar. Spotify description of RAI is an “instrumental, post-punk cinematic jazz band”. I second that assessment. The group was a quartet with bass, drums, keys, and guitar as the configuration. The music was fluid and definitely cinematic, like a soundtrack theme from an imaginary Western. Some members played in the punk outfit Das Damen back in the 90s. Guitarist was hip and oozed downtown cool, his leads texturing the sound. The music was soothing and could surely be used to score a documentary. It was obvious that “singing” would just clutter the songs. The excellent Garbage Time program on WFMU has RAI in heavy rotation. Minibeast is a tribal punk noise trio. Peter Prescott formerly from Mission of Burma on guitar, keys, and noises with a stellar rhythm section of Keith Seidel on drums and Niels LaWhite on bass. The churning drum and bass leaned krautrock, with echoes of high paced Can or Kraftwerk. Prescott is a legitimate freak, his “singing”or noises were passed through effects and looping pedals rendering them largely unintelligible. One song, I’m pretty sure had him yell Fuck! into the mic. When looped and processed, the noise acted like another instrument. The drummer was lanky, his long arms flailed at the kit creating the tribal backbone. Bass was muscular and insistent allowing for a perfect backdrop for Prescott to riff over. One song had him repeating “raise your hand” as the lyric, while others had spoken word elements. Prescott prowled on and off stage, at one point taking a seat in the audience marveling at the churning rhythm section. Minibeast straddles the line between punk and art rock in a delicious way.
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