R.S.A.G. - Organic Sampler

The first time I saw R.S.A.G (Jeremy Hickey) play live I was unexpectedly impressed by his frenetic percussive barrages and the set-up of his one-man performances. Against a backdrop of silhouetted band members all played by Hickey himself, he galloped throughout his performance seemingly uninhibited by fatigue and in fact building up to an energetic peak of an arms all-a-blur climax to his set.
So when I got his new release, Organic Sampler I was a little apprehensive as to whether I would find it as good without the visual spectacle of Hickey’s energetic performances to accompany the sound.

Hickey is at his best in this album when he is indulging in a heavy bass and dominant percussion tripping over it in the foreground. This is nicely complimented by his sometimes guttural voice which rather then acting as the leading melody in the track instead forms another layer within the song, much in the same vein as Damo Suzuki’s outlandish vocals complimented the music of Can rather then overpowering it.
This is best showed on tracks such as Bad Seed, Days Go By and Stick to your Line which unsurprisingly are the ones recognisable from his live sets. But thankfully, it’s also been instilled into a good number of the other tracks on the album.
Tracks like Its Over and The Climb though seemed to lack this subversive edge that Hickey is so great at gilding his tracks with and scooped a small lull in the album for me.
But compensation comes in the form of the two last songs on the album, building to form a great finale.
The album also comes with a bonus disc (R.S.A.G’s previous album) which although not reaching the heights of Organic Sampler, has one of my favourite tracks Moon Movin’ The Oceans on it among others that are well worth a listen.

And a look…

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl_SZL4UGoM&feature=related]