PRESS Release December 2008

RSAG released his debut double album ORGANIC SAMPLER in November. What resulted appeared to be a frenzied vocabulary competition from Irish media to outdo each other in terms of compliments for this mesmerizing and totally unique act.


R.S.A.G. ( Rarely Seen Above Ground ) is Jeremy Hickey. He is a multi-instrumentalist who records, performs and produces all his own material. Live R.S.A.G. plays drums / percussion and sings. The backing tracks are recorded in his studio. Visually, he has created a virtual band which is projected on a screen behind him.

Think of Joy Division, Talking Heads, Fela Kuti, New York rockers, ESG with the visual impact of the Gorillaz. But rather than the use of animation, he aspires to a sort of shadowplay; a show of silhouettes of himself, which he utilises on disc. Think of what DJ Shadow done on his live tour of The Private Press. This is so much more than just music, it is a friendly, full-sensory virus with no known cure.

R.S.A.G's career has catapulted in the last 7 months and has included a recent support of The Fall in the Spiegeltent tent. He also headlined the Body and Soul Arena at Electric Picnic where he was joined on stage by Liam O'Maonlaigh and Ronan O'Snodaigh. The impromptu jam that followed left weekend revelers reeling.

"One of the best acts by far I saw at the Electric Picnic was R.S.A.G. He blew me away…" Irish Times Sept 2008
"This is probably one of the most unique and diverse collections from an Irish artist that we have heard all year and one that is well worthy of your attention" Road Records (Album Of The Week)


"Mazes of bass jams, resourceful rhythms and malleable vocals create an intriguing, occasionally creepy, whirlpool of sound" Sunday Tribune

Make no mistake, it's real 'album of the year' territory.
Cian O'Ciobhain (Radio Na Gaeltactha)


For media information, interviews and pics please contact Linda Sharkey at 65churchavenue@gmail.com T: 00 353 863569867


R.S.A.G REVIEWS


IRISH TIMES
Well grounded

CD CHOICE: R.S.A.G., Organic Sampler, Psychonavigation
*****
You may well wonder why a solo project from the former drummer with Kilkenny band Blue Ghost demands your attention. You've got other things to do, people to see and starry Next Big Things to check out. You don't really have time for a bloody drummer from the Marble City. Sure, he could be the new Phil Collins for all you know.The first track on Jeremy Hickey's latest release as R.S.A.G (as in Rarely Seen Above Ground) is called Counting Down , and it lasts for just under two minutes. You can spare two minutes, can't you? That's the same time you'd probably spend waiting for a bus or stuck in your car on the road into town. Yeah, you can spare it.

By the time Counting Down has finished pounding and pumping an exotic and mesmeric tattoo into your ears in the nicest and funkiest way possible, you'll be hankering to hear more. Take your time - you're going to be coming back again and again to this album in the weeks ahead. There are many elements which make Organic Sampler such a wow. Hickey's sense of scale and ambition is remarkable, and each track leaps out of its skin because the producer won't settle for the mundane. Here's someone who is determined to get what he hears in his head down on disc. His grooves are extraordinary, a heavyweight percussive storm conducted by the lightest and finest of touches. Hickey's David Byrne-like yelp gives the album a touch of the Talking Heads, but there's nothing wrong with that. Put all this together and you have tunes that are compelling, dramatic and exciting. Every track clicks into its stride, makes for the higher ground and hits the target. Other albums may shout about their merits, but Hickey is one worth listening out for.

www.myspace.com/rarelyseenaboveground

JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Counting Down, The Climb, Moving Image

© 2008 The Irish Times






Hotpress Magazine

R.S.A.G 'Organic Sampler' (4.5 / 5.0)

Kilkenny drummer gets spasmodic on us

R.S.A.G. (Rarely Seen Above Ground) is the musical alter ego of
Kilkenny native Jeremy Hickey. The former Blue Ghost stickman's most
recent guise sees the multi-instrumentali st take a turn down Talking
Heads alley,with spasmodic,slinky sounds aplenty. Organic Sampler is
an extremely textured record bursting with drum fills galore and
mad-as-a-bag- of-hammers vocals. It all works really well though
(particulary on 'Counting Down' and 'Bad Seed' ) and will probably
ensure that Jeremy won't be underground for much longer. EDWIN MCFEE

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The Star Newspaper October 10th

Multi-talented Jeremy Hickey is a future of rock 'n' roll that
comprises of the best bits of Talking Heads and Joy Division blended
with new bits all of his own. And we mean all his own - he plays every
instrument and what's more he does so extremely well. This is utterly
fabulous.

Sunday Tribune Newspaper : 28th September 2008

RSAG
Organic Sampler
(Psychonavigation Records)
4/5

It's a brave man who releases a double album as his debut, and R.S.A.G. (Rarely Seen Above Ground) aka Jeremy Hickey is just that. Having stunned Irish festival-goers with an ambitious live show that sees him drumming in front of screens showing pre-recorded footage of his instrumental accompaniment, the Kilkenny man unleashes 17 tracks across two CDs. With drums the foundation to every song, the music remains unclassifiable. On the first disc, the songs are more structured; on the bonus disc, it's a little looser. Mazes of bass jams, resourceful rhythms and malleable vocals create an intriguing, occasionally creepy, whirlpool of sound. It's a hugely promising piece of work.Download : 'Days Go By', 'Tell it Like It Is', 'It Over'
Una Mullaly
Kilkenny People


It's been the best part of two years since the first R.S.A.G. (Rarely Seen Above Ground) album appeared; it was the first public exhibition of what the former Blue Ghost percussionist extraordinaire, Jeremy Hickey, had been putting so much of his time and energy into, and it was a great collection - taking most by surprise, with its far-reaching ambitions and layers of multi-coloured sonic carpetting; here was that manic, wildly talented drummer playing around with a whole range of other instrumentation, and coming up with an album of subtle, infectious innovation. It was heavily rhythm-led - as expected - and the snatches of vocals zoned in and out, almost as if the artist was bashful of having a voice.
Now, with the release of Organic Sampler, we can see he ain't shy about being heard any more, and what we have on our hands is a masterful collection of songs that are fleshed out equally in every area (and there are many, many areas open for exploration here). That first album sold out its mere 300 pressings very quickly, so it's great that it's included here as the bonus disc - not to mention its new-found effect of showing us how far R.S.A.G. has come as an independent, unrestrained musical entity. An album of this musical scope could quite easily - and, no doubt, would in someone else's hands - be over an hour long; but not here. Coming in at just under 36 minutes, this musical feast is all the more tasty for its brevity, like a meal in a fancy, over-priced restaurant: it's quality and presentation over gorging in indigestion.
The drums, while still on their neverending voodoo adventure, are pulled back - becoming a team member rather than team leader. And the vocals are out there, bringing to mind David Byrne singing from inside a giant vacuum cleaner. Here we have the complete R.S.A.G. picture. There is a myriad of influences - and fresh ideas - thrown into a blender, and what comes out is all its own: Organic Sampler begs to be heard by anyone who has ever been moved by quality music.
A single nylon string guitar riff (at least, I think that's what it is) introduces the album, and the first track, Counting Down, starts the excellent series of grooves; a brilliantly short opener, it whets the appetite for the feast to follow. Stand-out tracks at this early stage are The Climb, which, if released as a single, could give other like-minded fresh artists such as Vampire Weekend a run for their money; Days Go By manages to be both jaunty, with its trampoline bass line, and dark - the sound is claustrophobic, with the vocals echoing a despair unrealised by a naive, unworried madness; and Stick To Your Line is Joy Division as imagined by Brian Eno on an African island. It Over (no, it's not a typing error e.g. "I dream it over...") is a slow, worming track that grips you only half way through the following track, a mean feat of head-f***ing if ever there was one.
Lyrically, I haven't a bull's notion what's going on, which is actually a good thing when the music is this wildly adventurous and demanding of your undivided attention; perhaps it is vocal as instrument, and the words are simply the strings. Needless to elaborate, the entire package is a wonderful specimen. The "virtual band" live shows might distract from the sheer quality of the music on offer here, but I would certainly hope not: this is probably the freshest thing you'll hear for a very, very long time - Organic Sampler is a natural high with no come-downs at all. Get out there and get it!
Pius Meagher


Entertainment.ie
A few years ago, Jeremy Hickey was merely the modest sticksman in Kilkenny band Blue Ghost (no, you won't have heard of them). These days, if the rumours are to be believed, he's one of the most innovative and astonishing Irish musicians around. The fact that he performs solo with a 'virtual band' projected onto a screen, Gorillaz-style, doesn't harm his reputation as a trendsetter-of-sorts; but then again, neither does his debut solo offering under his Rarely Seen Above Groundpseudonym.

Comprised of two discs – the main album and a bonus disc containing mostly instrumental doodles – Organic Sampler is, quite simply, an extraordinary record. The depth of scope and enterprise is palpable on every track; from the powerful, bleak opener Counting Down to the trim groove of Talk Back Crawl Back and the lithe squall of The Climb, there's a sense that Hickey is constantly striving to create something never heard by human ears before. While he doesn't quite succeed on that front – his influences (primarily Joy Division and Talking Heads) are paraded audaciously, though never derivatively – there's a magic about Organic Sampler that means every listen will unearth new surprises.

Which also means that there's a wide range of styles on display here, to keep interest afloat: experimental, disordered jazz cabaret (Days Go By) and sinister voodoo-style fuzziness (The Climb) lay side-by-side with animated, hypnotic pop (It Over) and songs that recall a trippy tour of a morgue during the witching hour (Stick To Your Line). Such a mixed bag could easily turn up catastrophic results, but the whirlwind of solos and styles somehow works cohesively. It's more than a little premature to call Hickey a visionary, but this is undoubtedly a wondrous debut album.

Review by Lauren Murphy





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http://www.nialler9.com/blog/2008/09...ganic-sampler/

I've been keeping my eyes and ears out for former Blue Ghost drummer Jeremy Hickey over the last two years. This Friday he will release a debut album The Organic Sampler under his Rarely Seen Above Ground moniker. Those of you who have witnessed Jeremy's incendiary live show will know what to expect – a one man band in the form of a drummer, percussion and singer who performs with the aid of self-created backing tracks and silhouetted visuals.
At times he sounds like Talking Heads, one of his many influences. His music is psychedelic, heavy on the percussion, brimming with bassline and filled with drum rolls galore. Get caught up in the maelstrom of his ebullient, textured album, because you know this Kilkenny man isn't going underground for much longer. Plus, Matt Vinyl likes it so that's good enough for me.


http://mattvinyl.blogspot.com/

Following receipt of the RSAG album, Organic Sampler, and having listened to it a number of times, I can now tell you what I initially suspected about it. It's brilliant. It has the same edginess to it that the live shows do. It's the bee's knees and the dog's bollocks all mixed in together and appearing as one giant mutated organic form. It reminds me of Talking Heads in places, Was Not Was in other places and like stuff I've never heard at all, in other places.


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Road Records Album Of The Week (19th September 2008)

'This is probably one of the most unique and diverse collections from an Irish artist that we have heard all year and one that is well worthy of your attention'

Full Review:
Rarely seen above ground is better known to his friends as Jeremy Hickey, an Irish born multi instrumentalist and this here is his debut album for the Psychonavigation label. Hickey records, performs and produces pretty much everything on the album. Its hard to believe this is all the work of just one man as the album features pretty much all live instruments with just the most subtle hint of electronic trickery. The album has been meticulously constructed to form one very funky collection of new wave and punk funk sounds. You will hear influences from the likes of Joy Division, The Cure, Talking Heads, New Order, Pere Ubu, Liquid Liquid, ESG and a heap more. Its got the early punk funk rumblings of talking heads blended with the slightly darker elements of early joy division and bass heavy new wave sounds. At times you can almost imagine peter hook jamming with early talking heads infused with the post punk edge of gang of four. The percussive element to the album is simply outstanding as hickey makes his way around a drumkit like a man with six arms. The second CD sees the album mellow out just a touch with lots more electronic effects coming into the mix and slightly more emphasis on the punk funk side of things. This is probably one of the most unique and diverse collections from an Irish artist that we have heard all year and one that is well worthy of your attention. Basically if you like choppy angular bass, rhythmic percussion, new wave, post punk and a bit of delicate electronic pop then this collection will keep you happy for a very long time. The album comes in a lovely card pullout sleeve

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Make no mistake, it's real 'album of the year' territory.
Cian O'Ciobhain (Radio Na Gaeltact)





Ponytail Gig @ Whelans on Wednesday 11th September 2008

R.S.A.G aka Jeremy and his virtual band was superb as always, like a man with ADD that makes him bang drums incessantly. A total pleasure to the ears. (State.ie)

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Roisin Dubh (An Taobh Tuathail Vol II Launch Night)

By12.10, the Róisín Dubh is half-full, and Rarely Seen Above Ground – aka Jeremy Hickey – has just begun lashing into the drum kit at the front of the stage. His entire body is consumed by rhythm, and he growls, yelps and hollers his vocals into the microphone just over his shoulder. For the third time tonight a backing track proves vital, but of all three bands RSAG has put it to the best use. While many acts will use a drum machine or backing track to replace the drummer and play other instruments live, RSAG has done the opposite: guitarist and bassist are relegated to simple rock riffage on the projector screen behind him, and the live drums and vocals take centre stage. He's taken control of the room in no time, with every member of the steadily growing audience enthralled by his soulful, fitful rhythms. I haven't seen a live act this exciting in a very long time, and I think a roomful of exuberant, dancing Galwegians would agree.
Yvonne Ryan .Saturday, 16 August 2008