Portland, Oregon based four-piece Rayon, describe their sound as, “a life-long post punk and Sonic Youth fan trying to reconcile their love of The Kinks and 60’s British Pop.”
The bands latest single, “Driving” comes off of the bands 2022 album, Colour – released on vinyl via Little Cloud Records. Recorded straight to tape, the single has cheekily become referred to as, “The Devil Song” by other members in the band due to its abandonment of the typical 2/4/8 rhythm patterns, instead being played with a 3 and 5 pattern, making the track seem to have a time-signature change, when in fact there is not one to speak of. Instead, “Driving” remains in a 4/4 pattern through its entirety. Some wicked trickery at the hands of frontman and main songwriter, Eric Sabatino.
Here, single-note-layered drones accompanied by flange effected bass guitar and Rickenbacker rhythm give the track its interesting texture. With the initial rhythm section being created on a looped beat courtesy of a Sequential Drumtraks machine, later being layered over with live drums helped the track take form into its final incarnation.
The lyrics on, “Driving” leave the listener up to decipher under their own personal interpretation, which can often be a more beneficial approach to allow a song to unfold and exist within subjective meanings of the moment for each individual. With lines like, “To wait, To win, Ready to begin,”… and “When you don’t know the language where you’re trying to stand”, help open up a visual and audio cortex that can enfold the listener into the world of unique sound that is Rayon. So listener; you must now ask yourself, are you ready to begin?
