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Four words from their bio tell you a lot of what you need to know about young Long Island (formerly NYC) trio Rahim: "recorded with J. Robbins." (I guess that's really three words and an initial.) Rahim has that terse D.C. post-punk sound, with the wiry bass guitar and the geometric, occasionally dissonant guitar lines, and their vocals sometimes sound like Robbins too. They incorporate some other elements, some surprising, some less so. The trumpets on opening track "KlangKlangKlang" hearken back to June of 44, who used trumpet in a similar post/math/punk context way back when. There's keyboard, for instance on "Only Pure," which isn't as big of a surprise as the falsetto backing vocals on the rumbling "Desire." A smile-inducing moment occurs in "Shut Off the Lights" when a drum break is signalled by a whistle blowing, and suddenly in your mind's eye you're at a parade with a drum corps. Pretty cool. Not surprising at all are the Slint-y spoken-word parts on disc closer "In the Kitchen." What's most surprising about this disc is the melodic pop sensibility that peeks through every once in a while, and which blooms forth full-fledged for one track in the middle of the disc, "Forever Love," which is almost Beatle-esque. As confident as this disc sounds, I don't know if these guys are fully sure of their musical identity yet. This album isn't quite their coming-of-age story, but listening to them try to figure things out is still pretty interesting. (mike.05.06)
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