Rainer Maria
Rainer Maria EP

THE REVIEW

If in youth, to make oneself heard, one tends to raise their voice at the risk of, say, getting a note at school or a punishment at home, with maturity, spirits and shouts are quelled. The young raise their voice out of passion, and be sure they will be heard. The wise ponder, count to ten, and what will be, will be.

The first self-titled mini album by Rainer Maria (1996, Polyvinyl) is composed of a blend of both elements: a dose of character and personality, typical of mature records, and the adolescent fervor, the reckless youthful attitudes, raw, that often appear in debut records.

The New York trio formed in 1995. Caithlin De Marrais and Kyle Fischer (also bass and guitar, respectively), influenced by the emo vocal style (fear not) of the previous decade, merge at the microphone, at least in the early productions, to harmonize their dismal nineties-style melodies ("Summer & Longer"), also inspired by the influences exercised by some melancholic atmospheres predicted a few years earlier by Slint ("I Love You Too", "Rain Your Hand").