Hidden Ritual "Always" 2016 Texas Dark Psych
“Turn off the lights and put the strobe light on its slowest setting, Hidden Ritual’s second album is full of post-punk ghoulishness.” Based in Austin and making their brand of gothy psych-rock since the early part of this decade, Hidden Ritual have just released their second album, Always. Even though you may not hear it, the new record draws inspiration from Mexican singer-songwriter Juan Gabriel and freestyle recording artist, Johnny O. Recorded in analog and sounding more like the softer side of early ‘80s post-punk, Always draws you into a ghostly after hours party in a dark basement—this is the way, step inside. Simple and eerie, “Weird Middle” sets the record off. The simplicity of production is immediately apparent as the guitar, bass and drums sound totally natural. This contrasts with the reverb-drenched vocals and keyboards. “Rat” is droning and there’s something in it that brings to mind Three Imaginary Boys era Cure. The creepy and mysterious title track “Always” has a dueling guitar and keyboard above driving bass and drums. “Limo” brings to mind Bauhaus as singer Jaime Zuverza makes Peter Murphy-style moans. Like a lo-fi horror movie or hazy 3am basement party, Always is ghostly and something weird might happen at any moment. Paying careful attention to tone and atmosphere, Hidden Ritual have written a record that captures a wonderfully creepy mood.....By: Daniel Ward...~
“With a lingering fear of stagnation in modern music that no amount of millennial whoops can paper over, it’s often those who can best reconfigure the existing pieces and parts of genres and histories that find the most original take on things. Austin’s Hidden Ritual performs this feat with ease on their second album Always. They take minimal, strummy, percussive post-punk (think the Feelies ca. Crazy Rhythms) and couch it in a murky, yet very carefully-filtered environment of reverb, synths, lounge motifs, and stock-still vocalese reminiscent of Ian Curtis or Ian McCullouch. The result is driving yet muted, combining the most effective parts of ‘50s/’60s sleepwalk pop gloom, the malaise of early Felt, Velvets-y strum, and disciplined mope – imagine Broadcast writing a new arrangement to the Chills’ “Pink Frost,” perhaps, and you’re getting warm. I’m sure you could throw another two dozen or so references against Always, and there’d be reason enough for them to stick. Hidden Ritual’s sound of now fits in remarkably well with the season of uncertainty in which we currently walk each day, as well as the decay of autumn and the lengthening of nights as the year inches towards a close. The second half of the record finds the group in more mood-inspiring, soundtrack-ish terrain. There’s not a lot going on in music as specific and put-together as Hidden Ritual right now, and the careful, by-the-numbers way in which they assemble these songs is likely to chafe a select few, but those folks were probably looking for something to hate anyway. It’s hard not to imagine this band taking off in some capacity, as they tick a lot of the boxes that make people seek out this sort of thing. Here’s to seeing where they go next, and to getting well lost in where they are now.” -Still Single...~
Looking at the band photo for Hidden Ritual I’m reminded of the movie Manos: The Hands of Fate. Something about the rock mantle and general vibe of the photo makes me recall the setting of that Mystery Science Theater 3000 classic. The movie has a last known photo quality about it. Like watching a home movie found at a flea market only to discover spooks and ghouls and possibly someone being sacrificed. These same subjects also come to mind when listening to Always, Hidden Rituals new album that we’re premiering for you today. The Austin band consists of frontman-guitarist Jaime Zuverza, bassist Ryan Camarillo, drummer Matt Reilly, and keyboardist Robert Kaye. Unlike their first album, they recorded the album analogue. Always is an album that could only come from Texas. Post-punk with a hill country filter. The keyboard is all late night and haunting. The pace is after hours, east 6th street drenched in fog and humidity. It’s a sound that fits their name to a tee. The album works best as a whole, like going through a fun house. Each track working at letting the unease and mood build and flow between the tracks. Songs like "Rats," "Limo," and "Other Side" await you to enter from the next room over, ready with their tales of vermin and travels to other dimensions. Regarding the time when the album was recorded Zuverza has said “Juan Gabriel reunited with god recently, I love him and I also love Johnny O, the freestyle recording artist. I consider these two behemoths huge influences and I thought about them a lot last year when we were in the studio recording Always.” While anyone might be hard pressed to hear those influences in the album, it’s nice to know they’re there, steering our guides as they tell the stories they wish to tell, how they wish to tell it. It’s a ride you’ll want to get on as soon as it’s done.....by Jonathan Bannister....~
For the past half-decade, Hidden Ritual has honed their blend of moody paranoia rock and stripped-down post-punk in Austin’s psych and party-oriented bar scene. Between the droning vocals of frontman-guitarist Jaime Zuverza, driving rhythms of bassist Ryan Camarillo and drummer Matt Reilly, and dissonant keys of Robert Kaye, Hidden Ritual channels a nervous minimalism that is akin to CBGB’s outliers and to what Brooklyn Vegan calls the “gothy” and “gentler” side of punk. After performing on NBC’s Carson Daly Show in 2015, Hidden Ritual released their debut album, Zebra Bottle, on Austin’s Monofonus Press label. The songs reached listeners of WFMU and BBC6, and they also found an audience among followers of 1980s Siberian bands. One Moscow reviewer summed up Zebra Bottle as a “shadow semi-acoustic rock-n-roll, dusty otherworldly groove and delicate percussion arrhythmia — nine troubled ballads to modern hermits . . . ideal for the lunar funeral of his own heart.” The following year, after a long summer of drinking green tea, Hidden Ritual decided to make a more easy-going record in a non-digital environment. In the fall of 2015, they enlisted Doug Walseth to record and mix their new LP, Always. Recorded on eight-track tape at The Cat’s Eye Studio in Austin, the twelve songs on Always serve up a relaxed and entrancing iteration of Hidden Ritual’s sound.....~ An odd variation of post-punk from Texas, on this 2nd album, recorded to 8 track tape, Hidden Ritual’s psyche-rock and reverb friendly vocals and mysterious droning unfold in a gloomy and ’80s fashion. It’s a lo-fi excursion that’s both adventurous and moody, minimal but with memorable bass rhythms and blurry keys, reminiscent of Joy Division, Bauhaus and the early days of The Cure. This type of punk is delivered in plenty of different forms, size and shapes in 2016, but Hidden Ritual’s version is among the best.....~ “Always,” the second LP by Austin’s Hidden Ritual, out on Monofonus Press, deserves attention for pulling the nifty trick of precision. Amidst their predilection for ice-cold keyboards, mambo, distortion-free guitar, and vibrato-rich vocals, nothing is wasted, not even oddly tuned guitar solos. It’s a sound as sinisterly monastic as their name, reverential but subdued, like someone dancing alone at 3 am in the low lamplight of a seedy, roadside motel. Add maracas and you’d have something close to Young Marble Giants (hear Hidden Ritual’s “Roach”); go electronic, and maybe Basic Channel; add a little surf, and you’d something like Dirty Beaches, or the quieter work of early Gallon Drunk. On “Always,” only “Rat” truly goes all out with a speedy tempo, its guitar leads and keyboard figures fighting for space. Ice-cold organ accents grace “Limo” and, on “Problem,” Hidden Ritual adds a delicious, outdoor tone, as if drums and bass were recorded at a disconnect, in the distance, at the mouth of a desert cave. On album showpiece “Roach,” a Casio keyboard fed through a guitar pedal mimics a creepy horn. Meanwhile, the whole song approaches samba, swinging like a beach-set nightmare as chiming guitar buoys sad singing. The album comes back to Earth with instrumental track “Quarry,” which maybe places the spooky lounge of Martin Denny in a real Texas quarry. Ravelin talked to Hidden Ritual’s Jaime Zuverza about the new album:...by....Andy Fenwick....~ Tracklist
A1 Weird Middle A2 Rat A3 Always A4 Interlude A5 Limo A6 Roach B1 East West B2 Other Side B3 Luv Bottle B4 R.C, B5 Problem B6 Quarry
