The latest in the R-Coon series of reissues is also the earliest. Is Night People is the first recorded documentation of the band and you can tell it: ideas that would fully bloom on later releases are in chrysalis here, the band is more conventional, there is an occasional drum machine. Though surprising how much the band would mature in mere months, the Raccoo-oo-oon on Is Night People is still unequivocally Raccoo-oo-oon. The fact that I came to it last, after I'd heard later R-Coon makes its more traditional aspects all the more interesting. And don't get me wrong; I'm saying traditional for R-Coon and that's still plenty far out there. The band simply presents us, yet again, with a collection of totally stout tracks.
Opener "Brain Loot" is a short and spastic intro to the brilliant "Uh-oh." A marching drum machine provides the basis for the track's quivering guitar masses and joyous screaming. Later in the track, the drum machine is augmented by live drums and the track rockets in intensity before settling into a section with electronic elephant trumpeting and a screeing noise part that falls like a feather: not exactly in a straight line. "Fluff Up Your Fur" is next and the track that really made the fact that the band is using a drum machine stick-out. The machine's static beat holds back the evolution of the song. Parts that would brilliantly and smoothly transition into something completely different just don't. Luckily, the machine fades out before the track's halfway point and the band uses the rest of the track to explore tribal beats, vocal drones, and twisting electronics. "Call Out Your Friends" is a slow-building track based on tribal drums and continuing vocal drones before it bursts out into a superintense noise-rock song in the last two minutes. "Stamped From The Stump" starts with a riff that almost sounds like it could be coming out of a southern rock song before turning into probably the most single most uplifting and driving thing R-Coon has ever written; at least until that section's heavy riffing falls apart and the song quickly rebuilds itself into something even more beautiful. Closing vocals from this track bleed over into "The Canyon Long Winding Words," a grinding and stuttering noise-rock song. Closer "The Great Horn of the Wilderness" is stunningly straight-forward and conventional, sounding like, excuse me, Pavement. Well, at least it sounds like Pavement until the band introduces the trademark sax, surprisingly absent from the rest of the album, and plunges the closing minutes into high-energy riffing and free jazz skronk.
As always, the cover art of Shawn Reed is nearly as big a draw as the music itself; here it's presented in metallic gold ink on black and is just gorgeous. Is Night People was most interesting, for me, for the opportunity to see the subtle changes in the band's sound. But fear not: before analytic and archival wonder, this album is simply a joyous and enjoyable work from a wonderful band.
