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The Royal Arctic Institute – The Royal Arctic Institute (2025)
Review:
For a band named after a fictional organization featured in a young-adult fantasy series (Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials if you didn’t catch it), The Royal Arctic Institute have a fairly adult sound — not to be condescending toward Pullman’s work, which deals with heavy themes and morally complex situations. But the music of The Royal Arctic Institute has little of the epic sweep or mythopoetic grandeur of the kind of music that’s usually inspired by heroic sagas – prog rock, in other words (or Led Zeppelin). Instead, RAI traffic in something more laid-back, crafting cool, limber and amiable instrumentals with a heavy focus on melody and color instead of velocity and complexity. It’s not otherworldly, but it does carry a mystical charge, however homespun. On their third album (or fourth if you count 2023’s From Catnap to Coma to Catharsis, which combined two limited cassette-only EPs), the NYC quintet continue to condense their sound while still keeping it breezy. Though early albums (the band formed in the mid-teens) like Accidental Achievements focused on windswept, soundtrack-like expanses, the band has since grown tighter and more composed, in part bolstered by the addition a second guitarist (first Lynn Wright and now Chris Robertson, who also plays keys). Additionally, the From Catnap to Coma EPs were produced by Yo La Tengo’s bassist James McNew, and since then, bass has played a more prominent role in the RAI approach as well, with loping, melodic riffs that set a low, slow groove and keep the twangy flourishes from riding off into the hazy sunset. With this kind of firm grounding, the band can roam freely without fear of stepping off the trail. The Yo La Tengo influence makes itself felt immediately. Fittingly titled first track “The Opener,” with its bobbing rhythm and cleanly picked, bittersweet guitar line, has strong echoes of I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One opener “Return to Hot Chicken.” “The Opener” is even more languid, with brushed drums, cooing synths and some restrained pedal steel. Robertson and founding guitarist John Leon play single-string guitar lines with as much elegiac deftness as YLT’s Ira Kaplan, but also throw in little bends, burbles and stops that add a pungent bite. Guitarist/keyboardist Robertson shows remarkable subtlety throughout the album, particularly on the latter instrument, adding a faint but crucial pulse to the melancholy (but decidedly non-Iberian) “He Died Fighting in Spain,” and then providing the piano outro that appears to spring from nowhere in the final seconds and leads seamlessly into the next track. In a motif that recurs throughout the album, the seeming suddenness of the piano is deceptive – if you listen closely to the track, you’ll realize that it’s been there all along, lurking in the underbrush and awaiting its chance to make a break into the open. Royal Arctic Institute’s twangy palette and drawling tempos aligns with country ambient artists like Suss, Luke Schneider and Chuck Johnson, but their turn away from high-plains drifting has moved them into the company of older, more propulsive post-rock bands like The Six Parts Seven or Tristeza. But the members of Royal Arctic Institute come from a more diverse background than most post-rockers; drummer Lyle Hysen was a founding member of ‘80s underground psych rockers Das Damen, which bassist David Motamed later joined, while Leon has backed the legend Roky Erickson. While their music has hints of lots of other groups and scenes, it possesses its own unique chemistry. Check out the (decidedly Germanic) “Immer Alles,” which hums along on a streamlined motorik groove, but also has room for some tangy guitar bramble midway through. Or there’s the relatively up-tempo “Placing a Stone,” which weaves a translucent piano motif into relentlessly one-note guitar figure before opening it up into a gooey bass/pedal steel duet. The crisp synth/cymbal interplay of “Sailor Goes Swimming,” meanwhile, gives it the zest of a chill-out dance track. Through it all, the production by Ray Ketchem, who’s worked with Guided By Voices and Alex Chilton, deftly balances nuance and momentum. The Royal Arctic Institute are undoubtedly a subtle band. Their music can be understated and tends to disguise its intricacy and daring. But they are pushing boundaries, make no mistake, even if they’re not making a big deal out of it. The Royal Arctic Institute shows off the band’s range while distilling its essence, and charts new territory while shoring up fundamentals. So maybe there is something fantastic about them after all. — spectrumculture.com
Track List:
01 - The Opener
02 - He Died Fighting in Spain
03 - Twigs of Cries, Feathers of Sobs
04 - Sunday at the Dime Museum
05 - Mas y Menos
06 - Immer Alles
07 - Placing a Stone
08 - Sailor Goes Swimming
09 - Telling the Bees
10 - May Her Memory Be a Blessing
Media Report:
Genre: ambient, americana
Origin: New York, New York, USA 
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.3.0 (UTC 2013-05-26)
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