Raccoo-oo-oon are probably my favorite new band right now. These guys are somehow capable to take all the divergent styles that make so many bands in the psych/noise/drone underground so fascinating and bring them together into a single snarling, hypnotic, twinkling, buzzing song. The reference most often leveled towards R-Coon is that of Here Comes The Indian-era Animal Collective and, when the band is in its more song-based mode, it is apt. Despite being seemingly hyper-active recently with 4 releases in the past three months or so, only one of these (the Pre-American Lands split with The Woods) contains all new material. The rest are reissues of tapes and CDRs from last year on the more proper mediums of vinyl and CD.
This album is the vinyl reissue of last year's self-titled Fuck It Tape with 10 minutes of additional music. Mythos Folkways is the band in full on improv mode with side-long tracks abundant. The A-Side is album/career-highlight "Secrets of the Hickory Hills," which starts with blossoming vocal drones and an almost excruciatingly AC guitar tone peeking its head about for a few moments until the boys bring the noise, complete with spastic drum harbinger. The level of energy maintained over the length of this track is stunning. Past a couple minutes at the beginning and a couple minutes of free jazz sax skronk at the end, R-Coon keeps it manic for an entire side of harsh noise. They cycle through various kinds of noise, from high-pitched feedback whine to deep drone to vocal spasms to pedal-strangled riffing, it's all here. At points, it recalls the unparalleled creepiness of Davenport's "If You Wanna Work The Dirt" with requisite howls. B-Side is "The Tall Stump" and "The Parasitic Vine," two shorter but still heavy tracks. "The Tall Stump" is aided by a nice sax/drum groove with all sorts of stuff flying willy-nilly about. "The Parasitic Vine" is, presumably, our ten extra minutes. Sound quality makes a noticeable drop-off and the track is obviously made of shorter snippets strung together. The good news is these snippets are stout, making up for the increased murkiness. However, the sudden difference in sound quality can be a little distracting from the overall experience.
While this album was fairly limited and is now sold-out at the source, a little scouring of your trusty distro sites (Time-Lag, Fusetron, Eclipse, etc....) should easily procure you a copy. The hunting is worth it as Mythos Folkways is easily the highlight of this young band's discography. If this band can keep on its righteous and noisy outré path they could easily become the new kings of the underground. Hell, they're already the only band that can play a saxophone that I like.
