Impose Magazine

March 2009

SXSW review

"Prince Rama was, undoubtedly, the weirdest, most compelling show I saw all week. Two drummers playing a part that could have easily been done by a lone, competent percussionist? A spacey, autoharp strumming neo-flower child operatically moaning into the microphone? A dirty-moustached, head-banging, keyboard mashing teenager opposite? And when the power blew - as it would several times at Treasure City Thrift over the course of the afternoon - a stomping, clapping, a capella gospel number? Wait, what?

Of the thirty-odd bands I saw at SXSW, Prince Rama also has the songs that stick most clearly in my mind. Processional, noisy, distorted lamentations and proclamations about God-knows-what make Prince Rama a band that one is compelled towards and mesmerized by like Odysseus to his sirens."

artrocker.com blog

March 2009

(from a review of a show with Psychic Ills)

"They handed out little noisy instruments to all the people standing in the front and the four of them started chanting, conjuring up a lovely dancer from the depths of the gallery’s basement. Once she arrived, the band members stationed themselves at their proper places and went to town while the princess danced for us all. It was a wonderful way to start a show, especially for a band like Prince Rama, who’s music is deserving of such a sight. After the first song, the dancer retreated to the basement and Prince Rama continued their exuberant and fun filled set with dual drum pummelers, plenty of exotic electronics, and more chanting. These guys are simply amazing live and if they ever come near you, it’s certainly worth a trip to see them."

Austin Chronicle
December 2008

Twas two nights before Christmas, and all through the church, not a creature was stirring, not even the prayer bells. Described as the "ultimate communal ritual experience," Boston-based trio Prince Rama's transcendental mantra machine music is sure to soothe the soul and take you higher, aided by Taraka Larson's husky, haunted vocals.
– Audra Schroeder


Greenman Festival Review
Greenmanfestival.co.uk
September 2008

"Caught the end of these [Prince Rama of Ayodhya]; any band that try and invoke a 17 foot wolverine with tiny ladies hands gets my vote, completely mental but strangely compelling."



Evening Gazette
(Middlesbrough, England)
August 2008

On The Beat: Robert Nichols
I promise you that no one in this world sounds like Prince Rama of Ayodhya. The trio comes from the USA but play music more tuned in to the Indian subcontinent. Songs infused with tales from Indian epics and astral adventuring are delivered on an autoharp, guitar, synth and hand drums. They charmed the Stockton Riverside Festival audience and a week later a packed to the rafters Waiting Room was devouring the cascading melodies, mystical mantras, chants and pulsating beats. Taraka's extraordinary voice, Kate Bush like at times, weaves an incantation. I would point you in the direction of the debut album released on Cosmos called Threshold Dances which will enthrall you from the first ring on the autoharp on the outstanding and uplifting opener Gita Nagari. There are shades of psychedelia as well as World Music about Prince Rama Of Ayodhya. It is far more lo-fi than prog rock trippy hippy. In fact, the warped nursery rhymed melodies of Laura and Das Wanderlust are called to mind at times. There are roars for an encore at the end of the set. At which point, Taraka, Nimai and Michael plunge into the audience and unravel a scintillating story set on the high seas. We provide the sounds of wind and surf. With the rain lashing against the glass roof above us and the aromas of food washing around from surrounding tables, it is about as atmospheric a finale as you could immerse yourself into ... totally cosmic. --Robert Nichols


Backstage Pass
(London)
July 2008

LAST WEEK IN LONDON: Getting Wasted In The Heat "The next act to grace the stage were a three piece from Boston, Massachusetts who were, well, different. When Prince Rama of Ayodhya started playing it sounded like a mix of native American Indian, Hare Krishna chants and Tiny Tim (remember him, the guy with the ukulele), though, surprisingly, not that unpleasant to the ear. They used congas, autoharp and guitar along with some clever keys and electronics and there were some infectious hooks in there as well as strong, if unusual, vocals."
--Peter Coulston


The ChronicleLive
(Newcastle, England)
July 2008

PRINCE CHARMING, NOTHING TO BE SCARED OF..."
"This time round the cosy surroundings of The Tanners will provide the playground for the Butterfly Cabinet stage, proudly hosted by White Cat Music. Headlining the night, and traversing the Atlantic all the way from Boston, Massachusetts, Prince Rama of Ayodhya will be performing their unique brand of musical theatre. Born in the summer of 2007 the threesome are well known for their celebrative psych-folk songs, evoking hippie-esque, happy neo-paganesque feelings. Transforming their live performances into a sonic safari, they guide listeners through the celestial residue and archaeological constellations of a timeless civilization, pining for self realization. Heavy stuff indeed, but widely acclaimed following the release of their first album Threshold Dances, back in May. The band will be releasing the official pressing in the UK with Cosmos Recordings in August and before that will also be playing the Stockton Riverside Fringe Festival."
--Gary Beckwith


WFMO Tufts University Freeform Radio
(Boston)
April 2008

"An aura of mystery unraveled before my eyes… I was taken back to a period of ancient scripture mixed in a raw primordial soup. A delicious concoction of psychedelic synth with a friendly folk atmosphere sparkled with chanting, singing and rhythms of every order, Prince Rama of Ayodhya defy genre and captivate the audience. The camaraderie and the pure vigor of the performance made it one to remember and pass down to future generations. The myth unfolds, and this group is certainly an enchanting adventure! Complete with an assortment of friends, including Greg from Manners on drums, it was a warm show spiritually and musically." ---Mose Berkowitz

NORTHEAST PERFORMER MAGAZINE
March 2008

"Prince Rama of Ayodhya performed with open arms, welcoming their audience from beginning to end by inviting them not only to enjoy themselves and dance, but also to join them on stage and participate in playing, and there were plenty of instruments to go around. The folk duo Taraka Larson and Michael Collins both wear many hats, circling between vocals, synth, autoharp, acoustic guitar, and various percussive instruments. Their set achieved the seemingly impossible: getting a small Boston crowd to actually let go of their inhibitions and dance themselves dizzy." - Taylor Bratches

NORTHEAST PERFORMER MAGAZINE
December 2007

"The Boston-based girl/boy duo known as Prince Rama of Ayodhya (Taraka Larson and Michael Collins) openly welcomed a somewhat reticent crowd of 30 or so, most of whom had succumbed to comfortable couches scattered throughout the room. Yet Prince Rama too found a spot, playing its entire set from a worn sofa. With songs consisting primarily of Larson's animalistic, vibrant singing over acoustic strumming and Collins' synth/electronic beats, Prince Rama delivered a persuasive and versatile set, ranging from up-tempo, tribal-sounding chants that encouraged crowd participation, to slower compositions overflowing with an inherent sense of the mystical." -Taylor Bratches


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ALBUM REVIEWS
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

THRESHOLD DANCES-

(European release/Cosmos/December, 2008)
From MOJO February 2009


UNCUT
January 2009

Threshold Dances, Cosmos Recordings (***)
Growing up in a Krishna community helps explain the new name chosen by Michael Collins, Taraka and Nimai Larson for the indie-folk bands formerly known as Dasi. Once based in Florida, the trio have relocated to Boston, expanding their sound to incorporate Eastern instrumentation into a cacaphony of psych-drones, banjo-plucking twangs, and wax cylinder crackles. Threshold Dances is dauntingly quirky in places, but it contains many splendid moments of artfully dishevelled gypsy-punk, junk-shop clonk-pop and antique textured beauty. -- Stephen Dalton



SoundsXP
Alternative Music Webzine
December 2008

The only description that fits is: psychedelic devotional freak-folk noise. The band - Taraka Larson, Nimai Larson and Michael Collins - came out of a Hare Krishna farm and started playing in Boston, linking with Cosmos Recordings through a shared appreciation of arch-psychedelicists Skygreen Leopards. They combine influences from the Incredible String Band and Kate Bush to Coco Rosie, Devendra Banhart and an ashram's worth of South Asian music. Eclectic isn't the half of it- there's chanting, werewolf howls and Indian opera, together with Native American ritual songs. You're always afraid that it's all going a bit New Age – and they've been known to hand out bells, hand drums and conch shells to audience members – but it never gets quite that indulgent. Taraka Larson's voice is discordant and has a Marmite quality – one moment off-key wailing in 'Gita Nagari', another singing operatically on 'Skipping Stones' - but the songs have a solid construction with a loud/soft dynamic and a way of making surprising musical juxtapositions. I'll save the longer tunes for next time I'm dancing round a festival bonfire while out of my gourd but it has its moments: the aforementioned 'Gita Nagari' has some unexpectedly sweet melodies hidden within and 'Gifting' works brilliantly as an emphatic folk song.
-Ged M


BOOMKAT
December 2008

The album traces mystical and occult influences through a prog-tinged approach to folk, resulting in great tracks like the far-out. stoneage shuffle of 'Mastodon' and 'Voyage To Corinthia', which features the most preposterously kooky vocal this side of a Josephine Foster LP. Adding to the air of general wyrdness you'll hear occasional Acid Mothers-style electronic interjections, prayer bells and goatskin drums. There's another highlight buried somewhere in a passage of 'Skipping Stones' which sounds uncannily like Kate Bush covering of Status Quo's 'Pictures Of Matchstick Men', which all by itself provides ample reason for investigating this strange but very alluring album.


Satellite Magazine
October 2008

Under their new guise as Prince Rama of Ayodhya, the Dasi kids took their slightly angular act up to Boston, and added a whole slew of exciting, Eastern elements to their aural palette. Nimai Larson's drum set morphed into a djembe. Michael Collins' synthesizer flip flops between his tried and true, out-of-this world Micro-Korg sounds and Indian, tambura-like droning. Think Dasi as we knew them, thrown into a blender with a Zach Condon, who was raised by Krishnas instead of falling for the Balkans Gypsy sound. The album is an epic, stop-and-go ride, with Taraka Larson's sometimes foreboding, sometimes nimble and lively vocals taking you on a groovy ride through ominous forests, space and time.
-- Dan Fitzpatrick

UNCUT
September 2008

The 38th Uncut Playlist Of 2008...
"5- Prince Rama Of Ayodhya – Threshold Dances"



From the Radioshow "Psyche v/h Folk" on Radiocentraal broadcast in Antwerp, Belgium June 2008

Prince Rama Of Ayodhya: Threshold Dances (US,2008) (****)
"I received this preview release, soon to be released on Cosmos Recordings by August 2008. It's an enchanting album, full of celebrative songs in different colourful variations of forms and with lots of instruments accompanying. At times the songs and instrumental passages are like celebrative enthusiasms with hippie-esque, happy semi-paganesque feelings, celebrative dances with some sub-religious weirdness, with roundabout pauses of instrumentals, astral imaginings of nature's calls (wolf's haunting voices are heard once), all with psych-folk flavours, or with some native flute improvisations provoking worlds from old Andes Indians with colourful clothes and buildings, or theatrical expressions full of rhythmic shamanistic drives, epic songs more related to a ritual dance… Well done!"

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ARCHITECTURE OF UTOPIA

(Anticipated release October 2009)

"Our next group sound as if they are not from this planet. In fact, they sound as if they are from some far-off future world and we have caught up with them in mid-initiation ritual chant mode about the worship and honoring of their third sun. Prince Rama of Ayodhya is a psych-folk group from Jamaica Plain who base their music on ancient sounds and chants. Their beautiful enchanting music is wonderfully unique and they have kindly given us a few exclusive tracks from an cross-platform project and collaboration that they have just completed with an architect, an EP entitledThe architecture of Utopia. This sound would give The Incredible String Band a run for their money on outer dimensional ideas in folk."

--The Experiment Podcast, London Institute of Contemporary Art

March 2009