Ragana<\/p>\n
Finding a total sonic equivalent to play alongside a band like Chat Pile<\/strong> would be a hopeless task, but prolific Washington two-piece Ragana<\/strong> come about as close to a spiritual twin as anyone could. After clearing a few technical faults, they unleash a loose blend of social commentary and atmospheric, blackened doom, all delivered with a hard-punching, earnest ferocity. Sole members Maria<\/strong> and Coley<\/strong> hand the duties of singing, guitar, and percussion back and forth throughout the night, allowing Ragana<\/strong>\u2018s unique dynamic to play out in the exchange of vicious tremolo and slow, even cautious, passages of finger-picked ambience. In spite of the false start, Ragana<\/strong> manage thoroughly to entrance their audience for the duration of the set, turning an expert recovery into a strong and memorable performance.<\/p>\n Chat Pile<\/p>\n In seven years of activity, Chat Pile<\/strong> have successfully avoided fitting neatly into any of heavy music\u2019s numberless subgenres. Their music is harsh, off-kilter, and a perfect counterpoint to tonight\u2019s setting: a repurposed Edwardian dance hall, nestled among some of London\u2019s more affluent areas and built rich with decoration. Tall mirrors, filigree plasterwork, and chandeliers dominate the room hosting the Oklahoma four-piece, hallmarks of a more prosperous and optimistic era, unaffected by the century of economic hardship and social decay that informs Chat Pile<\/strong>\u2018s rotten sound.<\/p>\n They launch into their set in an explosion of noise, and it only takes moments for the audience to soak in the wall of dissonant sound and start bouncing off each other in a mist of sweat and spilt beer; every song is delivered with an urgency.<\/p>\n Frontman Raygun Busch<\/strong> cuts the short moments between songs with banter that feels more like crowd work from a stand-up comic. Rather than an indulgence on the band\u2019s part, it\u2019s a necessary balance to the feeling of utter impending doom that songs like \u201cgrimace_smoking_weed.jpeg\u201d<\/strong> induce. The moments of respite are brief, though, and in between them the room indulges in an atmosphere of swiftly unfolding chaos. The crowd got rowdier with every passing song, but every face, on and off the stage, seems locked in a grin. Anyone around to witness this run of sideshows, or their upcoming ArcTanGent<\/strong> slot, is in for a treat. Chat Pile<\/strong> are a well-oiled machine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ragana Finding a total sonic equivalent to play alongside a band like Chat Pile would be a hopeless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1165785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,3981,16,15],"class_list":["post-1165784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-london","tag-metal","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117147835190640388","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1165784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1165785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1165784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1165784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1165784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}