The High Of The Spree Encased In Chord And Crescendo Portland’s Rayon Take Us Shopping

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The High Of The Spree Encased In Chord And Crescendo Portland’s Rayon Take Us Shopping

4/12/2025

Rayon
Shopping
Portland

Exploring our love-hate relationship with consumerism, Portland’s post-punk flagship Rayon send us Shopping. Out on Little Cloud Records, the song examines our relationship with survival, revenue, and unquenchable desire. Do we really need this thing? Do they really need this money? It’s not so simple, unread Big Issues in my bag aside, sometimes we deserve a treat and sometimes so do they. The music project of Eric Sabatino, long-term resident of Portland, Rayon is now complete with its missing pieces. Anna Sabatino, Riley McLaughlin, Eric Rubalcava and Derek Longoria-Gomez from Sun Atoms, Yuvees, Pastilla, and Martha Stax, the band make use of rainy afternoons and garage studio setups to make their best sound. For the first time, Eric Sabatino decided to employ the skills of a second maverick, namely Larry Crane from Cat Power, Death Cab For Cutie, Elliot Smith, and more credit, to help produce the record. With that brand power behind the merchandise, how can we refuse? For just over 4 minutes of your hard-earned time, you can enjoy a thoroughly comprehensive journey through American home-grown sound.

A punchy guitar riff brings out a sense of urgency before it pauses and lets us relax. The rhythm kicks in, it’s got a reggae feel as the guitar and drum play off against each other in formative passages. Bass dives in; the waters ripple as the pounding notes elevate the kick and snare. Bouncing chorus effects frame the vocals as artistic phrases decide abstraction and point to spirals. The band exists like a planet, spinning in seasons as angular momentum braces for new days. As the directions flow and the sunny periods evolve, emotions twist and fix before undoing again to find new patterns. You can lose yourself in this one, and when it ends, you’ll not be sure where you’ve been.

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