RODNEY DANGEROUS, an experimental project that formed in Providence, Rhode Island, brings us art music that is concerned with themes of trash, lottery tickets, and expensive legal drugs. The projectʼs debut installation “Fantasies” is a sprawling sixteen-track double album via Almost Ready Records based in Brooklyn, New York.
In addition to the veteran Rhode Island experimental music scene contributors at its core, RODNEY DANGEROUS features contributions from Actor/ Musician Kevin Corrigan (Goodfellas, Pineapple Express), Felicia Douglass of the Dirty Projectors and Opal Hoyt of Zenizen. Rafay Rashid carries the record throughout, which is a stylistic departure from previous projects such as Ravi Shavi and Happiness.
“Fantasies” bops between genres but stays firmly within the mind of its central character, an “unnamed man who is both unraveling and becoming”. The assumed eponymous hero of RODNEY is on full blast through the tracks, whose psyche seems to fluctuate as much as the code- switching of styles on display.
`RODNEY DANGEROUS has presented us with a daring debut, dangling hooks that take their cues from pop classics only to subvert our expectations and wander into the unknown. The lyrics, delivered in a frenzied manic monologue, constantly shift between sincerity and satire. Thereʼs disco, garage-rock, afro-beat, and balladry all at work in this fascinating and fragmented bricolage of manic, apocalyptic hope.