Research & Development

Part industrial-trance, part acid-dub and altogether a visionary kosmiche club aesthetic — the first release from Research & Development finds an unlikely collaboration between Toronto’s Raf Reza and David Lush, as they explore the common ground in their disparate musical visions. Recorded in a day, the record is as much about the music, as it is the art of improvisation and beauty of a new friendship– both increasingly rarified forms since the start of the pandemic. That alone is cause for celebration.

Yet it is the sound that draws you in. Weatherall is in the mix in spirit and he can’t stop talking about his obsession with Tubular Bells. Everyone’s flipped through Krautrocksampler. The tracks here are flip sides of the same night. Is it a Tyranny of Choice or a Tragedy of Options?

Time melts, time dissolves, time travels, time evaporates, time dispels nothing of the mysteries of life here. It passes. And for a record so coated in 90s nostalgia, it only makes sense with a full view of what’s come before. So with the past fading in the rearview, Research & Development keep on the road ahead.

(Words by Akash aka Tender Buttons)
credits
released April 2, 2021

Music by Raf Reza & David Lush.
Recorded in Toronto, October 2020.
Mastered by Cristobal Urbina.
Lathe cut by Jackson Darby.
Design by Kris Guilty.

Released by La Rama Dubs Lmtd 2021.