Raspberry Bulbs is the invention of visual artist and musician Marco del Rio, who, under the guise of He Who Crushes Teeth, co-founded Bone Awl -- one of the most distinguished black metal projects ever to come out of the U.S. Raspberry Bulbs' debut album, Nature Tries Again, emerged in 2011. Hitherto a solo endeavor, RB expanded to a five-piece in the wake of Nature's release, and sought to make a definitive break from black metal's musical signifiers, if not its underlying themes of alienation and abjection -- a path of self-discovery that culminated in the bruised, dynamic visions of their sophomore LP, Deformed Worship (BLACKEST 018LP). Privacy arrives barely a year after its predecessor, but it's a markedly more developed and far-reaching album. Songs of excoriating intensity once again form the basis of the work -- the no-frills 4-track recording capturing all the violence and nuance of del Rio's vocals, of the dual guitar rapport, and the machine-gun rhythm section -- but this time they're interspersed with eerie electronic miniatures, instrumental pieces that suggest unseen worlds, malign energies, forces beyond our comprehension and control. This aura of the uncanny is no accident. Though it's practically impossible to describe Raspberry Bulbs' music without mentioning punk or metal, the band's most important influences are literary: in particular Lovecraft, Machen, Chambers' et al. Includes mp3 download.
