Do I like this! Sydney’s Raising Ravens debut album ‘Leaving With The Halflight’ which contains a number of released and unreleased tracks including new single and video ‘Don’t Stay’ hits in a couple of days on March 31. Shows in Australia and the UK & Europe have been set with “the exciting announcement of two shows at Rebellion Punk Festival in England.”
Just to clue you up: “Raising Ravens was conceived by Australian artist, Jess Finlayson in 2020 and grew into a musical nebula over the following years of mayhem and chaos. The album was recorded over a 3-year period of time, dodging lockdowns and all manner of storms, embracing the ambiguous nature of the dark and light aspects of life and rock and roll. Including contributions from some of Jess’s favourite musical comrades, Raising Ravens has become more of a collective than one singular entity and continues to evolve. Choosing to remain completely independent, Jess created her own label, Interloper Records in 2021 with all Raising Ravens releases being launched from a platform owned and run by the artist. A hard-hitting rock-based project, Raising Ravens focuses on topics that tend to be swept under the carpet or ignored and touches on subjects relating to worldwide and personally experienced abuses of power and the effects those abuses have on those who are at its mercy. Working alongside long-standing friend and producer, Lachlan Mitchell, Raising Ravens have managed to pull together a vast body of eclectic work with both national and international tours on the immediate horizon. There may even be an album number two in the works. You just never know.”
Sonically I would call this rather catchy low-fi Hard Rock with a definite taste of early 80’s UK Indie Rock and it’s really quite mesmerizing and fresh. I love the rather straight ahead opener that sports a Hard Rock via White Stripes kinda vibe. But it’s the rattle and hum and guitar sound in ‘It’s a Trap’ that really made me sit up. With lyrics that have real substance and a vocal that reminds me of Inger Lorre from The Nymphs and that same kinda Punky vibe this is actually a real gem. ‘At the Mercy of the Sky’ that opens with harsh acoustic and comes up all hypnotic is probably my fav at the moment and sports a wonderful breakdown but there’s nothing throwaway here.
And the deeper you dig the more you uncover on this exceptional record from the gentler, slightly dark waters of ‘Don’t Stay’ or the more urgent ‘Unheard’. There’s a definite old school Gothic vein being tapped here and I love that heady mix of alt-Goth sounds of yesteryear with a distinctly modern muse lyrically. I would love to see this played but sadly Perth and the West misses out on what I’m sure is going to sound huge live.
Very, very good.
9/10
TOUR DATES – AUS / UK / EU
MARCH 31 – RYAN’S HOTEL, THIRROUL AUS
w/Morgana & Dead Creak
APRIL 15 – MARRICKVILLE BOWLING CLUB, SYDNEY AUS
w/Gaia Rising & Downgirl
APRIL 29 – WHOLE LOTTA LOVE, MELBOURNE AUS
w/Acid Ash, HZED & Howling Mountain
MAY 6 – GREASER, BRISBANE AUS
w/Burnt Trash & Kathleen Turner Overdrive
MAY 13 – HAMILTON STATION HOTEL, NEWCASTLE AUS
w/Sand Viper & Laura Panic
JULY 6 – BANNERMANS BAR, EDINBURGH UK
JULY 13 – THE SPINNING TOP, STOCKPORT UK
JULY 14 – THE PIPELINE, BRIGHTON UK
JULY 15 – THE BIRDS NEST, LONDON UK
JULY 20 – RIFF, BUDAPEST HU
JULY 21 – WILD AT HEART, BERLIN DE
JULY 28 – AMSTERDAM NL
JULY 29 – HAARLEM, NL
AUGUST 2 to 6 – REBELLION FESTIVAL, BLACKPOOL UK
Full band show + Jess Finlayson solo show.