Staff Reviews

Prince Rama - Xtreme Now

Review by Matthew Slaughter

Pitched somewhere between a scientology-like cult and neon-t-shirt arena pop»

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'Xtreme Now' is the most extreme album Prince Rama has ever made. Working with acclaimed dance producer Alex Epton of XXXChange (Gang Gang Dance, Bjork, Spank Rock, Panda Bear, The Kills), the new songs take on a more powerful, confident, fierce, infectious, all-encompassing, and accessible dance - club feeling than any other Prince Rama record - a fearless, visionary pop tour de force for the ghost-modern era that celebrates the ephemerality of life, dancing just at the edge of death's gilded smile. Writing for 'Xtreme Now' began while the Larson sisters were living on a black metal utopian commune on Vormsi, a remote island off the coast of Estonia during the summer of 2012. There, Taraka had a near death experience inside an ancient Viking ruin which sparked a recurring sense of time-schizophrenia, or the physical sensation of existing in multiple time periods simultaneously. In this case, she experienced a joint- existence in both the medieval ages and the year 2067. In one of her prophetic visions she describes, "In the year 2067, I witnessed an aesthetic landscape where art museums are sponsored by energy drink beverages and beauty is determined by speed. I saw a vision of ancient tapestries stretched across half- pipes and people base-jumping off planes with the Mona Lisa smiling up from their parachutes. I saw art merge with extreme sports to form a new aesthetic language of 'Speed Art.' I realized that time travel was possible via the gateway of extreme sports, and I wanted to make music that would provide the score." Perceiving a great void in the world of extreme sports for music that could match the metaphysical intensity of these death-defying feats, Prince Rama set forth to make 'Xtreme Now', the first real foray by any musician to create a new "extreme sports genre." For inspiration, the sisters looked to their own flirtations with death and time-dilation, along with countless hours of obsessively watching extreme sports videos and consuming dangerous quantities of Monster Energy drink.
description from www.roughtrade.com