Oakland California's Galena slowly stirs the pot with dark menacing synth layers

Rebecca Knight (drums)

echoing horns

It is as pure as you can get

RARAFRE + AM - S/t TAPE Art Rock Oakland California's Galena slowly stirsThe quartet RaRaFre+Am Rafael Cohen, Raquel & Franke Vogl and Amelia Saddington was a rarity in the D. C. punk scene around the year 2000. The group explicitly pursued a tightly plotted chamber music, orchestrated for guitar, oboe, accordion and standup bass. Their sound can feel like a contradiction: these densely woven, dirge like miniatures careen from section to section with a prickly insistence, while at the same time exhibiting a trademark sense