Group - 12th House

2013 release from Mara Barenbaum's solo vessel Group Rhoda. Recorded and produced in collaboration with Ben Versluis in San Francisco, the album's eight songs snake through a similarly entrancing terrain as her past work, but this time the production is starker and spikier, with an almost post-punk clarity in places. From witchy island pop ('Day Ruiner,' 'Dust') and dizzy, micro-cosmic disco ('Coral Castle') through paisley-flavored circus-psych ('Disappearing Ground') to wobbly, haunted house dub-damage ('Space Race,' 'Blk Mtl'), the record is rich with rarefied Rhoda rhinestones and reflections. Her vocals pirouette and perplex, detached yet discerning, casting strange dimensions into the music. A free-spirited and fascinating follow-up by one of California's most intriguing young pioneers.