Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The balance of our world is at stake, the precipice is staringly close, our heels are clinging on for the sake of our sanity, but the demons, the shadows of whispers that grab at our ankles out of sight have started to close in; only a truth of art can hope to bless our souls enough to bring us back from the edge, but we must allow the mind to Start Close In on healing before the temptation to let ourselves fall completely, utterly, over the edge of the precipice.
How we find that salvation is up to us; occasionally though an album will find its way to us, it will appear fully formed and raise a shield to protect us from the voices of disappointment, from the misery of those that hide on the other side of the precipice, whose lips salivate as they start to believe they have won.
In the highly anticipated new album from The Rheingans Sisters, Start Close In, that sense of purpose, the delicate ease of providing solace to the listener is bewitching and clear, a long salute to time as they return after a four year wait to once more aid the distressed and despondent, the downtrodden and the those whose lives have been slowly eroded by the ugly at heart and the times of difficulty in which we have been ushered into.
Resilience, it is a spirit that is infectious, and the heavenly sound employed by the rejuvenation of the Folk cause is one of effortless cool by the pair as weave narrative, whether through interpretation or the blend of their heritage, and as tracks such as Shade Chaser, The Great Devil/Mr. Turner’s Hornpipe, Marche a la Cabrette, Over & Over Again, Old Neptune, and Si Sabiatz Drolletas crisscross in a pattern of radical inclusion that tends to every emotion, and by doing so creates a sense of calm that lulls the listener immediately away from the edge.
To have the Rheingans Sisters return to the public attention is to feel the shadows in the darkness burn in their own heat, the ashes of the damned losing their power, and the resulting calm is pleasurable and comforting.
The Rheingans Sisters release Start Close In on September 27th
Ian D. Hall