Ragana - Wash Away LP
Welcome to where the stars fall out of the night sky, and to where cold winds forever blow. Welcome to a place of solitude and retreat, where the silence and vastness of the world immerses you into a strange state of peace, loss and fear all at the same time. Ragana are a duo from Olympia WA, now residing in Oakland CA, comprised of Maria and Nikole. They play music that is transcendental, mesmerizing and beautiful, while retaining a simplicity, innocence and grace that is at times hard to grasp and even believe, and which is profoundly moving and seductive. The duo is comprised of guitar and drums, with both handling vocals, and they are both known to switch instruments – something that you will notice gives the songs a different feel from one to another. Wash Away is their third release and is a huge step forward from their previous works.
Taking cues from melodic proto-black Cascadian acts like Agalloch and Velnias and blending it with hints of doom, anarcho crust, post-punk, sludge, Americana and folk, the duo have materialized something intimate and graceful but untamed and feral at the same time, and just like some kind of mythological animal, this album nests inside you, burrowing deep within the bowels of your most remote imagination, haunting you.
Contraszt Records