It’s always good to hear new music from Jeremy Hickey aka Rarely Seen Above Ground but more commonly listed as R.S.A.G.
‘Meet You There’ is the Kilkenny drummer and multi-instrumentalist’s new song and it continues the run of one-off singles that have featured his music growing in scope and direction, most obviously in texture and tone here, with strings, a more commanding vocal and a relentless hurtle rhythm.
‘Meet You There’ is inspired by the work of scientists attempting to understand the composition of black holes.
The visuals in the video for ‘Meet You There’ are created by long-time R.S.A.G. collaborator Paul Mahon a.k.a Geppetto.
Geppetto is the musical project of producer/visual artist Paul Mahon who has brought musicians, once again, into his circle around a theme.
For his second collection of music, named The Et Cetera Project, there is an EP of music and photography exhibition “inspired by the salutary tale of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island.”
Except it hits closer to home. The Et Cetera Project traces that island society’s collapse and the crumbling of its culture and the construction of monuments that only remind us of what was lost. It finds parallel in Ireland’s power stations: “standing stubborn, seafacing and completely depleting a finite natural resource,” as Mahon explains.
The project name references these things we discard, including our culture, our people and our resources.
Musically, Mahon has gathered some fine talents with resources of their own to share: Come On Live Long’s Louise Gaffney, i am niamh, violinist Rachael Boyd, spoken word from Martin Bridgeman, Owenie and Jeremy Hickey of R.S.A.G. It was mixed by Conan Wynne of Contour.
Have a listen to the opening track, ‘Floating Statues’, featuring i am niamh on vocals and a guitar and glockenspiel backing that’s much more deceptively gentle than the theme in question.
Jeremy Hickey has been dividing his time between France and Ireland of late, playing with the French electro band Bot’Ox and most recently, with Justice’s Xavier de Rosney and DVNO’s Mehdi Pinson.
While we await the outcome of that meeting, Hickey is returning to R.S.A.G. for his new album later in the year, the first fruits of which, ‘I’ll Be There’, displays a more electronic-focused style than his previous percussive sound of live alternative rock instrumentation and percussive funk.
“For this track I wanted it to sound somewhere between Caribou, Four Tet and DJ Shadow. With the female vocal adding a ghostly entity whispering menacingly,”
