The Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus: Beauty Will Save The World press
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Uncut, review: **************************
The Listener (NZ), review: **************************
On The Tracks (NZ), review:
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Off The Radar (NZ), review: http://offthetracks.co.nz/the-revolutionary-army-of-the-infant-jesus-beauty- will-save-the-world/
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R2 magazine, review: **************************
Harmonic Distortion, review: http://harmonicdistort.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/revolutionary-army-of-infant- jesus.html
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Pretty In Noise (Germany), review: http://www.prettyinnoise.de/the-revolutionary-army-of-the-infant-jesus- beauty-will-save-the-world.html Rough English translation: http://occultationrecordings.tumblr.com/post/133867864885/translation-of- pretty-in-noise-raij-review
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CFRC (US), airplay: http://anatomy-lesson.tumblr.com/post/133236169356/november-14-2015- another-episode-of-the-anatomy
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Rockerilla magazine (Italy), review: Original Italian Rough English translation
REVOLUTIONARY ARMY OF THE INFANT JESUS Beauty Will Save The World Occultation Two albums between 1987 and 1991, an EP in 1995 and then, twenty years on, a new work: via the commendable Occultation Recordings, the obscure (and mysterious) London band release Beauty Will Save The World, an album of austere and enormous beauty. The RAIJ sound is less severe and industrial than some of their earlier material, and it picks up on their more static, sleepy side, mixing (apocalyptic) folk and sacred music, electronics, field recordings, film samples and urgent, almost ethnic rhythms. This results in a challenging journey but one with sublime expressive power. There can be no doubt that it’s been worth the long wait: IF BEAUTY REALLY WILL SAVE THE WORLD, THIS ALBUM COULD MAKE A KEY CONTRIBUTION. Francesco Amoroso.
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Music Won’t Save You (Italy), review: http://musicwontsaveyou.com/2015/11/17/revolutionary-army-of-the-infant- jesus-beauty-will-save-the-world/ Rough translation: http://occultationrecordings.tumblr.com/post/133463326005/revolutionary- army-of-the-infant-jesus-beauty
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Tracks magazine (Switzerland), review: Original German Rough English translation Revolutionary Army Of Infant Jesus – Beauty Will Save The World
The Revolutionary Army Of Infant Jesus is a Liverpool band shrouded in mystery who prefer not to talk but to let their music speak for them. The trio of Paul Boyce, Jon Egan and Les Hampson hardly give any interviews and rarely appear on stage. Even on the internet, apart from a Facebook page, they don’t have much of a presence. Since they formed in the mid- eighties they’ve released only two albums ("The Gift of Tears", 1987 and "Mirror" 1991). So The Revolutionary Army Of Infant Jesus, whose name is taken from a Luis Buñuel film,continue to behave in their usual mystical manner on their third official oeuvre. The multilayered songs that mix up many different styles and forms (spoken word, world music, soundtrack, folk, industrial, experimental, African rhythms), are full of atmosphere and integrate their diverse references. In "Bright Field" a recording of a critique of a poem by R.S. Thomas is woven into the track. "Repentance-Sama" contains an extract from the 1967 documentary "The Holy Ghost People" and the title of the album " Beauty Will Save The World" is taken from Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. Song titles like "Song of the Soul" and "All is Grace" are full of atmosphere, mystery and a separate (distinct) beauty. RAIJ let listeners decide for themselves and make their own minds up. **************************
Post Industry (Poland), review: http://postindustry.org/archive.php?id=3403 Rough translation: “For years more was said than was known about The Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus, a mysterious ('obscure’), group about which little is known. Anyone persisting with their research on search engines might unearth the names of the band leaders, and perhaps even find one or two interviews dating back more than two decades, but although the results may be meagre, the music speak for itself.
RAIJ have never gained the fame and ‘market’ share of Current 93, Dead Can Dance, Legendary Pink Dots, and yet there are comparisons with those groups. On the one hand the RAIJ had quite a cult status, but on the other they remained somewhat on the sidelines, in the shade, known to those who were able to dig below the surface or were simply lucky enough to come across this treasure by accident.
Naturally, all this was the result of a specific RAIJ policy. The group did not blow their own trumpet or engage in the cult of artistic personality or scandal. They were totally silent for two decades and seemed to be consigned to their status as treasure buried deep below layers of information traffic, making a mockery of postmodernity.
But the Army returned - first through the rerelease of old material (entitled 'After The End’ and released in 2013), followed by a brand new album, this year's "Beauty Will Save the World '.
With its title taken from Dostoevsky and the face of Simone Weil (God forbid not to be confused with a feminist Simone Veil) on the cover, inside there are nine compositions reminiscent of 'the good old days' when RAIJ induced reverie and tears in the eyes with compositions such as ’Nostalgia' and 'Tales from Europe'.
What we have here is a total musical work of art - not in the sense of a synthesis of all the arts, because we have only music, but in the sense of connecting various kinds together in a truly subtle, sophisticated way a long way from the miasma of 'deconstruction' or cheap provocation.
It is not sacred (if you understand this concept in the same way as F. Schuon and J. Hani), or strictly religious (the two concepts are not the same) - or to put it more accurately - ‘evangelical' music. But this is music in which the sacred is treated seriously, not as an excuse for intellectual games with a world in which "everyone can anyone ask the question".
So how do we sum it up technically? Well, as they did a quarter of a century ago, RAIJ offer a peculiar combination of... what exactly? Yes, you can throw a few easy labels at them: dark ambient, neofolk, gothic rock, classical music, Gregorian chant and music of the Orthodox Church, perhaps a distant echo of jazz (in its more melancholy forms) and hints of a post-industrial-non-experimental kind. And the often recurring, repeating, monotonous rhythmic ritualised structure.
There is more to them than that, though. Beside these similarities species are largely thing about the case or associations of listeners, rather than the musicians’ intentions. In other words, RAIJ should not be considered as part of any ambient or industrial 'scene', working in their own specific way. Dark ambient does not have a monopoly on dark, spatial sound effects or neofolk on the theme of acoustic ballads with a folky flavour.
What more can I say? It's hard to find a simple description that does not impoverish the whole. RAIJ’s strength lies not so much in novelty or perfect implementation (though this music is inventive and well-played), but rather in a kind of sincerity and authenticity in the philosophy that lies behind the outer, purely compositional layer. It's a bit like Lonsai Maikov, so there is an effect achieved over the years, generally using very modest, sometimes even naive instruments played with simple arrangements. RAIJ undoubtedly have a far richer arsenal.
They all play their parts - including samples (chanting, recitations, etc.) and the band name itself: perhaps a little ironic and provocative, but, paradoxically, by the fact that it has been used in a more serious way than it might seem at first glance"
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Radio New Zealand (NZ), airplay: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201778269/ marty-duda's-artist-of-the-week
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L’attimo fuggente (Italy), airplay: http://attimofuggenterca.podomatic.com/entry/2015-11-10T04_31_41-08_00
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Pop Lib (NZ): https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2015/11/06/apres-le-temps-by-revolutionary- army-of-the-infant-jesus/
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De Subjectivisten (Netherlands), airplay: http://subjectivisten.nl/?p=4162
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L’attimo fuggente (Italy), airplay: http://attimofuggenterca.podomatic.com/entry/2015-10-27T02_50_17-07_00 http://www.indieforbunnies.com/2015/10/29/lattimo-fuggente-26-ottobre- 2015/
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Opus FM (USA): http://opus.fm/posts/raij-beauty-is-finally-here-to-save-the-world
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De Subjectivisten (Netherlands), review: http://subjectivisten.nl/?p=4082 Original Dutch Rough English translation
Well i really didn’t see it coming, a new C D by Revolutionary Army Of The Infant Jesus. After two albums, "The Gift Of Tears" (1987) and “Mirror" (1991) plus the “Paradis” EP (1995) there have only been reissues, some with bonus tracks here and there. They’re somewhere between Dead Can Dance, B lack Tape For A Blue Girl, Current 93 and Death In June. But 20 yea rs later, a new album "Beauty Will Save The World”, featuring 11 new tracks totalling 54 minutes, finally sees the light. Paul Boyce (clarinet, keyboards, vo cals), Jon Egan (harmonium, melodica, or gan, guitar, vocals) and Leslie Hampson ( percussion, piano, concertina, harmonica , guitar) get help from seven guests on cello, vocals, piano, keyboard, bass, guitar, keyboards and saxophone, bringing a mysterious, ethereal mix of neo- classical, ambient, neo- folk, folk rock and light industrial. Someti mes very spooky and dark and at other ti mes very serene, but always arresting. The aforementioned compariso ns remain valid, but we could also mention This Mortal Coil, United Bible Study, Piano Ma gic and Amber Asylum. A record of overwhelming beauty! **************************
Pop Lib (NZ), review: https://poplibnz.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/a-crowd-of-stars-by- revolutionary-army-of-the-infant-jesus/
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Musik Please (France), review: http://musikplease.com/revolutionary-army-of-the-infant-jesus-beauty-will- save-the-world-52501/ Translation: http://occultationrecordings.tumblr.com/post/131234128595/revol utionary-army-of-the-infant-jesus-beauty
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Stereo Embers (US), review: http://stereoembersmagazine.com/incandescent-soul-beauty-will-save-the- world-by-revolutionary-army-of-the-infant-jesus/
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Gideon Coe, BBC6Music, radio airplay: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06cj5ss
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Campus Grenoble (France), airplay: http://www.campusgrenoble.org/disco/airplay/published
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Les Inrockuptibles (France), review: http://www.lesinrocks.com/musique/critique-album/the-revolutionary-army-of- the-infant-jesus-beauty-will-save-the-world/
French English translation
The mesmerising return of The Revolutionary Army Of The Infant Jesus Friday 18th September 2015 “Beauty Will Save the World”: the album title quite rightly says that beauty can save the world. Review. By JD Beauvallet For almost thirty years now, out on the fringes of terrae incognitae inhabited by the likes of The Legendary Pink Dots and Current 93, this Liverpool collective have been developing a dialect, a kind of shimmering, cabbalistic Esperanto which lies somewhere between psychedelia, folk and sacred music. One of their albums is called Paradis, another Liturgie pour la fin du temps, and the desolate, fervent folklore of this new album - a pagan ceremony at which there is no lack of images of masks and carnivals of dread - is played out somewhere between these extremes. Even so, behind all the icy breaths and incantations which are enough to give you waking nightmares, you're left fascinated, stupefied and numb by this first album in twenty years with its music full of patient hypnoses, sometimes unfathomable depths (how many tracks do they use to create those silences???) and orchestrations redolent of eccentric lords. Suspended on a Cross, for instance, is as much Satie as de Sade; this is a song which does not stint on shivers of both terror and pleasure. Much the same can be said about the whole album which, while it might seem opaque, is all beauty and goodness
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Terrascope, review: http://www.terrascope.co.uk/Reviews/Reviews_September_15.htm#RAIJ
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Voix de Garage (France), review: http://voixdegaragegrenoble.blogspot.fr/2015/09/chroniquejohan- ashertons.html English translation: http://occultationrecordings.tumblr.com/post/129649462885/voix-de-garage- grenoble-chroniquejohan
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Heathen Harvest (US), news item: http://heathenharvest.org/2015/09/20/new-from-occultation-revolutionary- army-of-the-infant-jesus-beauty-will-save-the-world/
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Opus.fm, review: http://opus.fm/posts/raij-beauty-is-finally-here-to-save-the-world
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Church Times, interview: http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2015/7- august/features/features/standing-alone-in-an-apocalyptic-sea **************************
PennyBlackMusic, review: http://www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk/MagSitePages/Review/10073/R/Revolution ary-Army-of-the-Infant-Jesus-LP-Beauty-Will-Save-the-World
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Greenbelt blog, live review: https://www.greenbelt.org.uk/blog/2015/08/festival-favourites-day-two-part- two/ **************************
Opus FM, interview: http://opus.fm/posts/deeper-truth-elusive-beauty-interview-revolutionary- army-infant-jesus
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Todd Pennington, blog: http://www.toddpennington.com/node/91
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