The Thousands

Trust Now, sort of a lot to ask, actually. The kind of serious and timely demand that elicits a ‘you first.’ Thankfully in this case the move has been made and what is demanded is merely a reflection, participation. An open heart (something these girls have in spades) is a sizeable reflecting surface, and there’s nothing more prominent here than the joys of conduit-ship.

And so, Prince Rama give themselves to us first in six tracks with conviction and clearly-voiced wisdom that I can only envy, embracing fully the possibilities that giving-of-self lays like a victor’s laurel at the feet of those willing to sacrifice themselves on stage, acetate, or wax. Trust Now reflects these impulses with a really fortunate clarity. The tracks are trimmed to just the essential movements; each note ennobled because of its direct contribution to the trembling forward or staggering backward of the moment. These contributions are wrapped in the vernacular of Alice Coltrane ashram-cassettes, dollar-bin Ethiopian tones, and prismatic vocals that create a magical outsider-insider dynamic. The ultimate insiders, pleading the soul to trust its innermost impulses with tones formed and forged far outside: forged from necessity for utility. The resulting arrangements are filled with all sorts of interesting corners but exhibit a full-throated eagerness to move that inside outside, and (thanks to Nimai’s constantly stellar drumming) the medium is the massage.

‘Golden Silence’ – some great advice by the way – might be their catchiest move yet. It sways back and forth gingerly for its length, truly lovely swelling harmonies augmenting the chorus-sways, before mantra-ing itself into oblivion. Throughout the record, Taraka’s keyboards are alternately spiny and smooshed, pushing and pulling (mostly pushing) along modal lines that serve as runways for the energy the pair transmit. It’s a non-strategy that works precisely because it shows instead of telling, exhibition as instruction. The emphasis throughout the record is continually on the titular ‘now’: the performances save and spare nothing, driving the ecstatic and truly heartfelt lyrical insights to the center. There’s none of the multi-directional counter-progress meandering that characterizes most of what I do as Sun Araw. There is focus, clarity, and power. These are things that I marvel at, because they are things I do not possess, things that almost don’t occur to me. I am thankful for the reminder.