The core of the Castanets is the lyrical and musical talent of Raymond Raposa. The son of expatriate journalists, Raposa tested out of high school at the age of 15 and traveled the U.S. via Greyhound bus off and on for the next four years. This unusual educational experience spawned a musical vision that reflects a disquieting sub-strata of American life.

Castanets create music that is epic and inspiring. From somber love ballads to haunted tales of frustrated redemption, the delivery is potent and devoid of cliche or sentimentalism. Echoes of the The Velvet Underground, No Neck Blues Band, and the delta harness a strain of ancient Americana that even today pulses through a subdivided and paved landscape; the result is avant-country.

A favorite of the San Diego underground scene, Castanets have shared bills with the likes of Six Organs of Admittance, Hella, Acid Mother's Temple, and The Dirty Three.

With First Light’s Freeze, Castanets return with a dark mutant-country sound infused with strands of free-jazz and a late-seventies Nashville big-radio strut hijacked by post-punk unravelers. The result is a beautiful mix of somber reflection, destination-unknown travelogue, and subversive anti-war boogie. Castanets’ unrelenting creative pioneering delightfully befuddles, as they simultaneously flirt and dismantle “New Americana” venture capitalism.

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