Rain man and woman
2:54pm Wednesday 27th June 2001
Re:Initiation Rhea's Obsession
(Metropolis Records)
There are many reasons why people make music, writes Stuart Moses.
But the reason that intrigues me most is when music is used to explore the nature of reality and the spirituality of the world around us.
It's the sort of music that is either literally spellbinding, or an unlistenable dirge. Luckily, this reissued debut by Rhea's Obsession falls definitely into the former category.
Opening song Memento Mori starts quietly, with a distant female vocal influenced from the middle East.
But it is the calm before the storm and soon the drums are beating and the guitars are wailing, urging the listener into a trance-like state.
This is a song about the journey of the dead into the afterlife and back again to birth.
There's another mystical journey to be had with the next song Waves which has esoteric vocals and tribal percussion which you could easily imagine in a temple ritual of thousands of years ago.
You have to have a questing personality to get the most out of Rhea's Obsession.
Although never wilfully obscure, the way in which this Canadian duo use drones, and experiment with sounds is different from the normal pop charts.
Using traditional instruments like bodhrans and rain sticks, and taking the time to learn how to play them rather than just using samples, means there is a soul to the aural delights on offer that might otherwise be missing.