Journalist, Political Reporter, Cultural Critic, Editor/Proofreader
Alex V. Henderson
Philadelphia, PA
vixenatr
2007
Ra
By Alex Henderson
Ra is a band of contrasts—a band that is aggressive and forceful, yet consistently melodic, musical and intricate. A band that can be loud and in-your-face, but is quite capable of sensitivity, introspection and emotional depth. A band that is often hooky, infectious, commercial and radio-friendly, yet is ambitious and challenging. And all of those qualities are very much in evidence on Raw, the East Coast alternative rock/alternative metal/post-grunge outfit’s first live album, first album for Cement Shoes Records and third album overall.
Recorded live at the Machine Shop in Flynt, Michigan, Raw offers inspired live versions of songs from Ra’s two previous albums, From One and Duality. Raw also contains one studio recording: Ra’s passionate new single, “Don’t Turn Away.” Ra frontman/lead vocalist/founder Sahaj Ticotin, who writes much of their material, explains: “’Don’t Turn Away’ is a way to keep our radio friends happy—there is a lot of excitement at radio over this single--and the live show is a way to acknowledge our hardcore fans and acquire some new fans who might be hearing many of these songs for the first time. At the Machine Shop, the audiences are always so exciting and so crazy; I knew we were going to have a good show at that club because the audiences there always draw it out of me.”
Ticotin sees Raw as a precursor to Ra’s next studio album, Black Sun, which the Los Angeles-based Cement Shoes plans to release in the spring of 2007. The ability of Ra (which Ticotin named after the ancient sun god of Egyptian mythology) to combine the heavy and the ethereal so effectively on Raw may very well stem from the fact that Ticotin has very eclectic musical tastes and an intriguingly wide variety of influences. Ticotin cites Metallica, Korn, Queensrÿche and Soundgarden as major influences, but he also points to Peter Gabriel, The Police/Sting, Paul McCartney, U2 and Prince as strong musical inspirations. Hip-hop is an influence on Ra (whose current lineup also includes lead guitarist Ben Carroll, bassist P.J. Farley and drummer Andy Ryan), and so are the modalities of Indian, Middle Eastern and North African music.
“One of the things I learned listening to Metallica’s older stuff is that no matter how heavy something is, it never loses its melodicism if you use a Hindu/Arabic scale,” notes Ticotin, a native New Yorker of Puerto Rican and Russian descent who spent some time in India studying eastern spirituality. “It can be as heavy, brutal and hard as you can possibly imagine, but it will never lose its melodicism if it is in a Hindu/Arabic scale. And a Hindu/Arabic scale also adds an element of exoticness and allows you to use a lot of ethnic percussion.”
2006 marks the tenth anniversary of Ra, which Ticotin founded in 1996. Five years after its formation, the band signed with Republic/Universal Records, which released their debut album, From One, in 2002, and their sophomore effort, Duality (which contained their radio hit "Fallen Angels" and their popular remake of The Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”) in 2005. Hardcore Ra fans will recognize most of the songs on Raw, but for newcomers, Raw can be an exciting introduction to favorites like the hypnotic “Violator,” the soulful “I Lost Everything Today” (which Ticotin envisions as a possible single) and the driving yet contemplative “Sky.”
The title Duality, Ticotin stresses, was inspired by Ra’s desire to combine the intense and the ethereal—a desire they also express on Raw and will continue to express on Black Sun.
“From the beginning, Ra’s goal was to be a hard, heavy, metallic band, but with the vocal influences of Peter Gabriel and Sting on top of that heaviness,” Ticotin asserted. “The whole idea of this band is something that is incredibly explosive and powerful, but is also warm, giving and hopeful. I have a specific sonic goal to achieve: Ra will continue to grow heavier, thicker and chunkier, but we’re also going to be increasingly lush.”♦♦♦
Copyright 2022 Alex V. Henderson. All rights reserved.
Alex V. Henderson
Philadelphia, PA
vixenatr