Record Review - Rice Cakes - "Feel Like Human"

At a point in time when social networks, celebrity tweets, and digital identities have become pervasive in our culture, the question of what’s human and what’s simply artificial should be asked. It’s become a blurred distinction but The Rice Cakes are searching for an answer. The band’s latest release, a three-song EP put out on ten-inch vinyl, is a point of departure for the group. The dropping of “Roz Raskin” from its name in favor of the more crisp The Rice Cakes is definitely symbolic. On “Feel Like Human,” there is a strong sense of a band growing between albums. The songs experiment with new sounds, structure, and instrumentation. The Rice Cakes are fine-tuning and expanding all at once. The opening track, “Zabudabudee,” is most reminiscent of the sound heard on the band’s first release, “The Friend Ship.” Keyboard and flaring drums, all set into place and tailored by a strong chorus – the hallmark feature of the band – drive “Zabudabudee”.

            The best moments on “Feel Like Human” are when the Rice Cakes step into less familiar territory. On “Yellow Fields,” bassist Justin Foster assumes the guitar and the intro conjures up the glum playing of Nick Drake. The track soon speeds up, tumbling into a bouncy gait that kindles nostalgia, toying with country rhythms and broken narratives. “Yellow Fields” reaches its peak during the refrain, when Raskin’s coo is matched by the airy trace of slide guitar.

            Side Two of the album is reserved solely for the nine-minute “Humans.” “Humans” opens with a crunchy synth that would be at home on a SNES console, and eventually fades into a metronomic breakdown punctuated with taps on the glockenspiel. On this extended breakdown, drummer Casey Belisle takes lead on vocals; his soft and stuffy voice a nice counter to Raskin’s more polished sound. He sings, barely above a hum, the line, “I’ve been thinking about what makes us feel like human.” And fitting enough, the opening lines of the song hint at just what makes us feel human, when Raskin sings “Woke up to your death.” It’s death that makes us feel human, or at least the awareness of an impending death. That curious obsession we have with death; an obsession that’s really concerned with life and its endpoint. Life that is bookended by the unknown. At times this can be a somber and lamenting record, but it is a record filled with the markings of life – growth, progression, and a desire to wander out into new fields.