Kilkenny, Ireland-based multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Hickey (aka R.S.A.G. – an abbreviation of ‘Rarely Seen Above Ground’) certainly sets out some ambitious turf, while he hands live percussion, drums and vocals during his live shows, he projects a virtual band of his own multiple images behind him, resulting in a shadowplay collision of his pre-recorded backing tracks and ‘sidemen.’ This debut album as R.S.A.G. on Dublin label PsychoNavigation ‘Organic Sampler’ certainly makes a solid case for checking out his live show, and indeed the fusion of angular post-punk guitars and bass, nervous, twitchy vocals and thunderous multitracked percussion in evidence on tracks such as ‘Talk Back Crawl Back’ and ‘The Climb’ frequently calls to mind a cross between Talking Heads’ jerky white funk and the rolling Afrobeat ‘fullness’ of Caribou / Manitoba – something that becomes particularly apparent on ‘It Over’s clattering flurry of metallic snare textures. Elsewhere, there’s also a touch of Joy Division’s dark landscapes amidst the wiry guitars and mechanical drumming of closing track ‘Moving Image’, a suitably epic coda to the nine tracks contained here. While ‘Organic Sampler’ itself comes across as a fairly petite album, running in at just a shade over 35 minutes, it’s bolstered here with an additional second disc containing R.S.A.G.’s previous self-titled recordings. Well worth investigating.
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