Texas Rose, The Thaw and The Beasts

With Texas Rose, The Thaw and the Beasts , Castanets' Raymond Raposa keeps one foot in the rustic country, folk, and blues of past records while taking it - everything - to the next level. Straddling the line between 'out' and accessible, the Rafter Roberts-produced Texas Rose is a full-band affair, a bent noise-country terrain of dissolving interludes and spaced-out electronic pop tracks up against songs that wouldn't be out of place on a Merle or Willie record. Texas Rose, Raposa's fifth for Asthmatic Kitty, is a statement of stoic subtlety and grandeur, an equal balance of the big and the humble, the disparate and the cohesive. It is nearly 39 minutes of stride-hitting, potential-reaching, and pure big epicness.