Rah Bras
Issue #26
WHOHM (Lovitt)
By Audra Schroeder
Published: December 1st, 2005 | 3:59pm
Since 1995, Rah Bras have made electronically unstable music that borrows from Vaudeville and Dadaism as much as punk and industrial. Heavy on the electro and high art, WHOHM is perfect sum of all these parts.
The machine-gun beats and droning synth of opener “As She Rah” establish a good pace for the record; it’s gonna be in your face from then on. The bleep-blurp of “No Furture” and the slow slide of “Venis” cuts seriously close to some ’80s roller-rink jams, with a doff of the hat to industrial glitter rock. Singer Bellarah coos and bassist Boorah growls, trading the boy-girl vocals and shaking up gender roles as drummer Jeanrah keeps the beat straight. “War Ribbing Ode” pilfers Devo’s closet and comes out with a robotic red leather pantsuit, and “Monde Sewer Cholera Net” jerks and screams like Nick Cave fell down a rabbit hole. Closer “Mother Put the Wheel Away I Cannot Spin Tonight” breaks from the album’s frantic electro-skazz, delivering a twinkling piano line, shimmering drums, and a crescendo of pummeling hacksaw bass. The last hidden track finds Bellarah crooning what could have been a Kate Bush song as the curtain closes.
Is Rah Bras a parody? High camp? Performance art? All of the above, and that’s why it’s so damn refreshing.
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