Rites and Stories the 13th solo album by guitarist, songwriter and vocalist Rick Shaffer, is a continuation of the Berlin Period production sound of Iggy Pop and David Bowie found on Shaffer’s previous release Sleeping Dog. This new album is a dense cutting edge of angular songs, fragmented guitars, atmospheric passages and guitar treatments, with narratives lying at the forefront of this album of the survivors scattered on Jim Morrison’s “Dawn’s Highway,” while still rocking hard laying down the power with hypnotic proto-garage rock.
The “Rites” aspect of the release is from influences and beliefs in the development of his sound. The idea for the album is to incorporate atmospheric textures and guitar treatments proto-garage assault creating a unique sonic to the musical environment.
The “Stories” provides the narratives conveying and reinforcing deep introspection, menacing situations and late-night hedonistic imagery. As a lyricist and vocalist Shaffer is up for the challenge of the material; decadence, drugs, bad decisions and mortality. The vocal tone is desperate, passionate and compelling and lives in the primal sound of Iggy Pop and Jim Morrison with a distinctive quality of texture raw unfiltered grit.
The tracks Standing In The Shadow, Walks Behind You, Run To It and Cry For Justice have a sharp sound, formidable riffs and ghostly echoes that develop and strengthens the sonic innovation of the album. The darker dense tracks True Religion, Pleasure, and Dark Disguise are aggressive mid-tempo intersections of jagged guitars and fiery proto-garage rock, with a glassy shimmer. The cavernous percussive beats of tracks Pressure Point, Get It Wrong and the closer Slow Days contain tight twisted razor-sharp guitars and ominous bass lines in a relentless attack. All of the tracks inhabit a psychedelic hard proto-garage sound and edgy unsettling performances. Rites and Stories bleeds emotion and excitement.
■ Tarock Music, July 25, 2025
