Rageous Gratoons

Rageous Gratoons have been trailing around their musicality, their originality and their activism, throughout live performances and albums for 10 years. 10 years that Rageous Gratoons have followed their own way. 10 years that their music has been ceaselessly evolving throughout time, encounters, travels and causes to fight for. Because of their strong feeling of concern, the band members fight for and try to raise public awareness of social issues. Accomplished musicians, they also join in other bands such as “ASPO” which returns to the roots of Jamaican ska and the “Compagnie Mohein” that reinterprets traditional music from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Because of this diverse background, in 2001, when their 3rd album was released, no one was surprised by the incredible variety of their music. As Romanian sounds took deeper roots in their music at the dawn of the new millennium, they have added traditional instruments and musical influences from other Eastern European countries to highlight their rebirth. Soberly entitled “Rageous Gratoons”, the album sounded very close to human kind, reflecting emotions and convictions, such as ethnical fusion, the celebration of people, cultures and Earth. In 2005, with “Risipit Totul” (All consumed), the musical disorientation is still actual and upholds the militancy of the band, this time hand in hand with the anti-nuclear organization “Sortir du Nucléaire”. This is a full-out concept as the use of images such as the cover of the album and the many ecological plagues illustrated in the animation-clip, “El Circo”, made by Le Ratelier. On this 4th album, the Rageous bring their art further, with an improbable fusion between urban and rural music. In this hot-headed fusion, Eastern influences find their places in songs such as “Risipit Totul”, “Mefitheudon” and “Viata Mea” with their traditional gipsy tune. Far from old habits and easiness, new regions are explored. Thus, “Rastapopoulos” strolls along sirtaki sounds, and then undulates on oriental tunes that we can find in “Jemali” as well, a love song with Arabic roots. “Himba” celebrates these people from Southern Africa who are condamned to disappear with the flooding of their territories by a dam. Curiously, the evocation is done with a hint of Celtic and Nordic sounds. “Pennknivsmordaren” keeps on in the same manner, reinterpreting a traditional Swedish song. Not too far from this one, “Transylvanian Lover” could illustrate, without any doubt, a silent movie still to be written, with Buster Keaton as Nosferatu. In a different style, “Arnold” is coloured by hints of Argentinean tango, lulled by a nostalgic accordion and “La nozze del Wawash” with a bucolic and rural personality. That’s pure Rageous Gratoons, as, from one end to another; “Risipit Totul” exudes travels, while commitment, anger, humour, tenderness and love excite our senses. Visit http://rageousgratoons.free.fr! Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.