Falsetto chants and Bollywood drum beats disperse into a type of iridescence that rivals the vibrancy of the surrounding reflective golden tinsel.   With their energy mesmerizing, and their song hypnotic, sisters Nimai & Taraka Larson are Prince Rama.  Easily my favorite band in contemporary music, Prince Rama eludes structure and creates their own esoteric atmosphere that envelops their audience into a strange live show that leaves an air of frantic magic.

Photo: Eleanor Hardwick

Currently Brooklyn-based, Prince Rama is part of the rad milieu of artists that comprises the record label Paw Tracks (Ariel Pink,  Panda Bear) owned by Avey Tare (Animal Collective).  Their roots are mysterious and their travels are plenty, as their energetic presence is musically felt on each auspicious recording of theirs.

Prince Rama’s  Shadow Temple, released on  Paw Tracks, 2010

Their 2011 album, Trust Now, is one of my prized possessions of my record collection.  From the eerie and semi-decadent cover, to the cryptic tongues in which the sisters sing, the universal messages of loss & renewal, and trust & devotion, are each resonated in this gorgeous album.  Created from the record’s second track, “Summer of Love”, the music video presents Taraka and Nimai (and a traditional Indian dancer named Melissa Huser) wearing gold lipstick that correlates with their bejeweled, metallic skin.

A ritualistic consuming/releasing of shiny-goldened tinsel, Egyptian painted eyes, and bare feet moving along to cymbals, in confetti:

At one of their shows, I acquired a tape cassette that presented a series of sound “exorcises”, in which the sisters created slow-burning chants and dreamy beats that turn into an ultra-hypnotic trance that becomes more hyper and repetitive.  In further discovery, it turns out Prince Rama had delved into a type of research regarding themes of “exercise” and transcendence, during an artist residency they attended in Brooklyn’s Issue Project Room.  This year,  the underground music publication Ad Hoc presented Prince Rama’s visual aid to the exorcising project (available in VHS!), in its full and otherworldly entirety.  Entitled Utopia = No Person, their seemingly ode to 1980’s instructional videos is a sincere, meditative art piece that conjures ceremonial incantations and the individual’s goal to reach an “ideal”, through spiritual means…while wearing  gold lame pants that would do Leslie Hall  proud.   You can align your rainbow colored chakras, channel your aura into a golden hue, and burn your old energies while “looking great!”

Prince Rama is simultaneously two of the most intelligent yet down-to-earth peeps, touring today. One of the reasons I am inspired so much by their art, is just that their music is more than just insanely fun – it is performance, a spectacle,  and even a cleansing.

Taraka has beautifully written a poignant manifesto on the ideas of utopia and nostalgia and the cycles of sonic and visual forms throughout history.

Image courtesy of now-age.org

One of my favorite parts is her theory on the IMPORTANCE OF GLITTER(where were you, Taraka, when I was (not) writing the artist statement defending my undergrad art exhibit?!) as exemplified within apparel that is reflective/glittery/shiny:

“ Now Age aesthetics embrace materials and sounds that exist in a

mutually engaged and reciprocal relationship with their environment.  An example

would be reflective materials that catch the light from their environment and

reflect it back into their environment, thus creating a feedback loop and energetic

exchange between material (tangible) and space (intangible) as well as a portal

between the mundane (real) and the luminous (potential). “

The manifesto can be explored here: http://now-age.org/

and listened to here: http://artonair.org/play/10829/show/taraka-larson-the-now-age

An  example of their own killer reflective outfits (note their badass choreography):

Each of my friends who have been to a live show of theirs has always responded that it was their FAVORITE concert.  I have luckily been to a couple of their live performances, too, and subsequently got to spend time with them.  One time we sat around eating strawberries and crackers and yummy stuff like that, talking about GIRL STUFF and listening to Don Mclean and Billy Joel records and then Nimai gave me a rose quartz stone and a pair of neato white boots, and we did our nails and drank frappes, and OHMYGOSH, who gets to do that with their favorite band?  I DID.  AND IT WAS SO SO COOL AND SURREAL.  And sweet.  And fun. I always wanted a “big” sister to borrow clothes from and listen to music with and discover other artists/influences from.  Their music and (undoubtedly exquisite style) gives me that ability of looking up to two sisters.  Two sisters whom we can all learn from; in understanding and connecting to each other through our shamanistic dancing, our trusting, and our wearing of glitter.

Nimai , me &  Taraka Larson