Raffertie
It’s been a while since we posted anything from Raffertie but his 2013 release Sleep of Reason has been a go to album for me the last few months so I thought I’d do a quick follow up.
Raffertie, AKA Bejamin Stefanski released Sleep of Reason back in August 2013 on Ninja Tune Records. I first came across the album when I saw the video for Build Me Up directed by Vincent Haycock. Shot in South Central LA, the video documents a “day in the life” of the three brothers. The video takes an interesting approach by turning the breaks in the track into pauses for voiceovers, on top of a new musical element created from the choral backing vocals in the song. Haycock’s directorial approach almost puts the song and the documentary style video on the same hierarchal level. As a viewer, you aren’t immediately aware if you’re watching a video for a song or watching a documentary that makes liberal use of a soundtrack as a vehicle for storytelling.
The entire album is a rich and sophisticated collection of tracks that speaks to Raffertie’s diverse experiments with different genres as both an innovative producer and DJ. The album seamlessly travels through abstract soundscapes, simple, hooky R&B melodies, airy vocals and downtempo beats. Given that he’s an artist know to experiment with different genres, I’m really interested to see where he’ll go from this …
[audio:https://thenewlofi.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Raffertie-Rain.mp3|titles=Raffertie – Rain]
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