Issue 147

Look out for...

23rd October 2006

Raithism has to be one of the more obscure band names I've heard in a while - but still memorable nonetheless, especially once you've heard their music.

Raithism describe themselves as a seven-piece dance act combining guitar, double bass, flute, drums, keys and vocals. Personally, I'm not a big fan of dance music so I wasn't too sure how this combination would work with me but I can honestly say that I was well and truly won over. After finding them through MySpace (a recent addiction - yes, I need a life) I was really impressed by all the tracks they've put up on there. These guys sound really professional and have perfectly developed the chilled out dance sound, which mixes with a strangely addictive air of bass funk in certain tracks (listen to 'bepop' on their myspace page for a perfect example'). Effortlessly breezing through lyrics the vocals are almost flawless; in fact nearly all aspects of the songs just seem to beautifully blend together resulting in a new and inspired contrast to today's recent flood of indie British bands.

Beginning in Swansea in 2002, brother and sister duo Jolene and Raithe Laurence eventually gathered five more members to enable them to perform their music live. Since then they've played all around the UK, toured all over Europe and are signed to Indie label Field. The band still find time to come back to their home town of Swansea every so often though, with gigs at their favourite venue, Monkey Bar.

An immediate comparison that comes to mind with Raithism is Massive Attack - an influence that the band are keen to deny. Lead vocalist and founding member Raithe claims, "we don't like to restrict ourselves to a specific genre. Instead we prefer to focus on playing what feels and sounds good." Nonetheless, comparisons and influences such as Royskopp, Daft Punk and the aforementioned Massive Attack soon become apparent. In spite of this, Raithism still have that spark of uniqueness and have managed to set their sound apart from the obvious comparisons.

Amy Wilkinson