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RAINBOW ARABIA - "WITHOUT YOU"

Rainbow Arabia is an electronic duo out of Los Angeles, California featuring Whisky Biscuit Keyboardist Danny Preston and his wife Tiffany. They have been alternately described in any combination of post-punk, pan-global, fourth world, synth-pop, tropical ethno-electro or world-beat new wave. In truth all of these description are not only fun sounding but accurate. Rainbow Arabia like their peers Gang Gang Dance and Lucky Dragons use any influence they feel works. Throw a dart at a map and you will probably hit a country or culture that the duo use in their music.

On their latest effort, Boys And Diamonds (out on Kompakt), Rainbow Arabia continue this globe-trotting trend infusing their songs with a cultural grab bag of sounds. The pair also channel catchy, hook driven music on the album. The lead single, “Without You”, reminds one of a modern mixture of Haircut 100 and Siouxsie Sioux with it’s jungle percussion and ethereal, punk wailing. Other album standouts are “Papai” which evokes late 90’s Kruder and Dorfmeister, the percolating percussion of “Mechanical” and finally the Cerrone/Moroder-esque, 70’s Euro-disco floor filler “Sequenced”.

Remarkably, Boys And Diamonds with all the varying influences works as a complete album with songs building up from slow percussion tracks to the final crescendo at the end. It’s an intriguing album that might be too much for less experimental listeners but for Rainbow Arabia’s fellow sonic trekkers it will be on the hi-fi for years to come.


Official | Myspace | Kompakt