Pitchfork

Man, the press release for Castanets' forthcoming album In the Vines sure is some heavy stuff:

Ray Raposa of Castanets had almost finished his follow-up to First Light's Freeze when three men in strange masks mugged him at gunpoint in front of his home in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Stealing Raposa's rent money, iPod and security, the three thieves climaxed a year of depression and nomadic, nocturnal dislocation. Not long after the mugging, Raposa completed In the Vines.

And that doesn't even count the time dude was in the van when his stuff got jacked! Point is, our boy Ray's been through some stuff since the last time he checked in on wax.

Due October 23 from Asthmatic Kitty, In the Vines promises to be one of the more emotionally wrenching listens of the year. Based in part on a "Hindu fable about being trapped in an inescapable fate," the album features contributions from Jana Hunter, Phosphorescent, Viking Moses!, Nonhorse of Vanishing Voice, Nathan Delffs of the Shaky Hands, and Rafter Roberts.

Ray's also (improbably, but admirably) soldiering on after the loss of his stuff on a few tour dates.

In the Vines:

01 Rain Will Come
02 This Is the Early Game
03 Westbound, Blue
04 Strong Animal
05 Sway
06 The Fields Crack
07 Three Months Paid
08 The Night Is When You Can Not See
09 Sounded Like a Train, Wasn't a Train
10 And the Swimming

Like Castanets:

07-25 Pensacola, FL - House Show
07-26 Panama City, FL - Gallery Above Art Space
07-27 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club