''Cathedral'' is an album by

Castanets Castanets, also known as ''clackers'' or ''palillos'', are a percussion instrument ( idiophonic), used in Spanish, Calé, Moorish, Ottoman, Greek, Italian, Mexican, Sephardic, Portuguese, Filipino, Brazilian, and Swiss music. In ancient ...

, released on October 19, 2004 through Asthmatic Kitty.Listing
of the Castanets album ''Cathedral'' on Discogs.com, (accessed August 7, 2015). Part of the album was recorded live and includes a dozen local musicians. Led by Raymond Raposa, this is the band's first foray into studio recording, which he described as 'a really protracted, uncomfortable process'. The release features guest-vocals by Brigit DeCook and Liz Janes. The material was partly recorded in a remote cabin in Northern California. Raposa had planned to publish a novel to accompany the album, which failed to surface.

Critical reception

Amanda Petrusich Amanda Petrusich (born c. 1980) is an American music journalist. She is a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'' and the author of three books: ''Pink Moon'' (2007), '' It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American M ...

of Pitchfork.com compared Raposa's writing on ''Cathedral'' to that of the poet

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...

. She described the album as a collection of 'deep gothic ballads' of 'country music

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should sound like death, and more specifically, death-by-murky-submersion'. Heather Phares of allmusic.com referred to the religious overtones of the album, describing it as 'spiritual searching' and as having 'a certain dark theatricality'. Justin Cober-Lake at popmatters.com described ''Cathedral'' as having 'lo-fi production

hich Ij () is a village in Golabar Rural District of the Central District in Ijrud County, Zanjan province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq ...

helps develop the darkness of Castanets’ music. tsounds as if it was recorded in the desert at night, which suits the pre-technology fears of the album'. Jon Pit from Dusted Magazine called it 'another welcome installment in the folk renaissance' although he described Raposa's vocals as 'lacklustre'. In December 2004, American

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''Somewhere Cold'' ranked ''Cathedral'' No. 8 on their ''2004 Somewhere Cold Awards Hall of Fame'' list. In 2005, ''

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''s Andrew Gaerig reflected that ''Cathedral'' "was

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana music, a genre or style of American music * Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1981 film), an American drama film * ''Americana'' (20 ...

in the most literal sense. Though certainly not without precedent, ''Cathedral'' owed no major debt to Americana’s touchstones:

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

, and

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

". He further named it "a finding-America story that shedded wide-eyed mythology in favor of swampy

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' d ...

s and boisterous

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workouts. ''Cathedral'' had all of the dressings of a straight-from-the-womb, fully formed

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

classic—shrugging off considerable baggage, sidestepping genre pigeonholes—but the album’s relentless heavy heart was a downer, and it didn’t help that Raposa's scratchy folk whisper had trouble teasing the melody out of his compositions."

Track listing

Personnel

The album lists individuals as performers and cryptic descriptions of their parts, these include: * Mia Ferm * Nathan Hubbard * Nicholas Delffs * Nathan Delffs * Nicholas Hennies * Connor Kirkwood * Daniel Bryant * Pall Jenkins * Christopher Cory * Gabriel Sundy * Josh Quon * Sean Jerd * Raymond Raposa * Brigit DeCook * Elizabeth Janes * Rafter Roberts

References

{{Authority control 2004 albums Castanets (band) albums Asthmatic Kitty albums Psychedelic folk albums Americana albums Indie rock albums by American artists