Devotion to a Noble Ideal, EP, DL, 9×9 Records
Rumours of Angels, LP, CD, DL, 9×9 Records
The Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus (RAIJ) celebrate their 40th anniversary with a new EP and a compilation album. The band, variously described as enigmatic, esoteric, cult-like and ethereal, encapsulate their career to-date with these new releases. Both are in many ways retrospectives, the EP the little companion to the more comprehensive album, Rumours of Angels.
The Devotion to a Noble Ideal EP consists of 3 remixes and a new (remixed) song. 2024’s album The Dream we Carry is represented by the tracks ‘Equinox’ and ‘After the Silence’ and a remix of ‘Avatars’ from 2020’s Songs of Yearning is also on offer. While ordinarily not especially a fan of the remix, knowing these previously released songs quite intimately, has offered an interesting perspective on the oeuvre of RAIJ. Rather like The Human League’s 1982 remix album Love and Dancing, where the recently released (in 1981) Dare album is familiar yet distanced somewhat by the mode of the remix, I’ve always found that good remixes take the listener back to the original versions of the songs.
The remix artists who’ve engaged with RAIJ’s material have done a good job in updating / creating new versions of the songs. Of the tracks on the EP, the remix of ‘Voices’ by Liverpool band Blood of Achilles, offers the most radical interpretation of the original. The use of layered heavy guitar brings to the fore not only Blood of Achilles’ own favoured mode, but allows the track to take on a life of its own, in a distinct way from the original release.
Perhaps of more interest to the RAIJ fan, is the new track. ‘After the Silence.’ The remix by Dorothy Bird must be taken for what it is as we’ve no original version to compare it with. To these ears, it would fit comfortably in RAIJ’s Songs of Yearning era, perhaps it’s an outtake from those sessions or was written as originally recorded then.
Devotion to a Noble Ideal is described by RAIJ as “[…] a continuation of a journey – from a point of knowing to not knowing. It is the seeking of new meaning through creative collaborations that deconstruct and rebuild our work.” This helpfully allows us to understand the desire behind releasing a remix e.p. at this stage in RAIJ’s career.
The release of new work by RAIJ is always welcome. I can still remember buying the band’s 1991 release, Mirror on Liverpool label, Probe Plus. Partially, inspired to do so by the rumour mill, bill posters pasted across the city and the tracing paper on the cover (reminiscent of New Order’s Lowlife) I was immediately drawn in. The way the music ‘business’ worked in the old days, pre-internet was word of mouth, which was used to create something of a buzz. Liverpool being Liverpool meant that we’d get to hear things from sitting on the steps of the Probe Records shop in Button Street. Of course, there were the gigs at The World Downstairs (the bar area of the Royal Court Theatre which opened on a Friday night when the main theatre didn’t have bands playing) which were free to attend and cheap places to see bands such as The Mardi Gras and The Flying Picket. It was the latter venue that I saw RAIJ in the early 1990s (see some recollections of that in an IT piece by myself and Rupert Loydell titled ‘Out from Behind the Curtain’). What perhaps was most exciting about RAIJ back in the day, was the mystique. They were unlike anything else, then and now. That’s the real strength of the band. That and the tunes.
Rumours of Angels contains material recorded between the release of the albums Mirror (1990) and Beauty will Save the World (2015). The album was originally released as an extra disc on a limited box set of the band’s first three albums, alongside specially recorded material for an e.p. release. It’s good that this material is now readily available away from the dreaded ‘limited’ formats.
The live version of ‘Psalm’ is at the heart of the album. Running for just over 12 minutes, it captures the live power of the band. It’s a shame we can’t see the visuals that usually accompany them in performance. The blend of folk and the spiritual works perfectly as the track meanders from usual verse/chorus towards an ad-libbed extract from the track ‘Shadowlands’ from Mirror. Over melodic bass riffs and accordion, the ghostly heavily delayed vocals weave in and out of the live mix.
I do wonder whether as an introduction to the band, that this release works. Sure, as an addition to the band’s canon it really works – it plugs the gaps, but there is a need for a band as magisterial as RAIJ, to have an up to date ‘best of’ including the all-important post-2013 material, a kind of ‘new and selected’ would be the perfect way to celebrate the longevity of this unique band. The work that the band has produced in the 2010s and beyond is really something.
Viva le RAIJ!
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Andrew Taylor
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