Ever been to a gig and the person in front of you won’t put their phone away? Either taking a bunch of pictures, videoing it or going live on Facebook. And you just know they’re never going to look at that stuff again, other than the ego-massaging notifications of those life-affirming likes. Plus, from a video standpoint, it looks and sounds awful. And if it is you behind that person, not only are you not having a great time, the person watching the gig through their phone can’t be having the best time, watching it through a screen rather than right in front of them.
a recent Band of the Day, have actually encouraged this. Those mentalists actually asked fans at their album launch gig in Bristol’s Rough Trade to actively film their performance. So now they’ve got a band-endorsed audience bootleg of their gig for the entire world to see in all its grainy glory!
Described as an assault of fuzz driven guitar grooves and hard hitting drums, Raptor have been stunning the UK with a barnstorming wash of heavy psychedelia from the moment they hit the scene in 2015.
Comprising of brothers Kurt Fletcher, Adam Fletcher & Nick Osborne, the trio’s mind-bending stage performance has seen them open for artists including Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), Mick Ralphs (Bad Company/Mott The Hoople), The Groundhogs, Dr Feelgood and John Bonham’s sister, Deborah.
Having signed with Brighton-based Don’t Tell Anyone Records in 2018 (who released King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s Polygondwanaland) and touring the UK, Raptor have just released their debut album Escapism on Acid-Green 12″ vinyl.
Recorded in the dark depths of Bristol at Bink Bonk and mixed/engineered by Mat Sampson (Turbowolf, Kasabian), Escapism is a fuzzed out, analog epic of psychedelic, mind-bending proportions. Tinted with glam-flavoured garage-rock and grooving bombastic drums, the album twists and kaleidoscopes through themes of festival euphoria, Alice in Wonderland and hallucinogenic honey…
Header image by James Wilkinson
Raptor: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | spotify | youtube | bandcamp
