Cathedral is an album by Castanets, released on October 19, 2004 through Asthmatic Kitty.[1][5] 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'.[6] The release features guest-vocals by Brigit DeCook and Liz Janes.[3] The material was partly recorded in a remote cabin in Northern California.[1] Raposa had planned to publish a novel to accompany the album, which failed to surface.[6]
Critical reception
Amanda Petrusich of Pitchfork.com compared Raposa's writing on Cathedral to that of the poet Seamus Heaney. She described the album as a collection of 'deep gothic ballads' of 'country music [that] should sound like death, and more specifically, death-by-murky-submersion'.[3] 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'.[2] Justin Cober-Lake at popmatters.com described Cathedral as having 'lo-fi production [which] helps develop the darkness of Castanets’ music. [It] sounds as if it was recorded in the desert at night, which suits the pre-technology fears of the album'.[4] Jon Pit from Dusted Magazine called it 'another welcome installment in the folk renaissance' although he described Raposa's vocals as 'lacklustre'.[7] In December 2004, American webzineSomewhere Cold ranked Cathedral No. 8 on their 2004 Somewhere Cold Awards Hall of Fame list.[8]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Raymond Raposa
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Cathedral 2 (Your Feet On The Floor Sounding Like The Rain)"
3:13
2.
"Just To Break Free From A Hundred Families"
0:34
3.
"Industry And Snow"
1:44
4.
"You Are The Blood"
4:09
5.
"No Light To Be Found (Fare Thee Faith, The Path Is Yours)"
6:30
6.
"Three Days, Four Nights"
4:51
7.
"As You Do"
2:54
8.
"Cathedral 3 (Make Us New)"
0:31
9.
"The Smallest Bones"
2:47
10.
"We Are The Wreckage"
3:56
11.
"Cathedral 4 (The Unbreaking Branch And Song)"
2:23
Personnel
The album lists individuals as performers and cryptic descriptions of their parts,[5] these include: