Names of North End Women

This collaboration is a deep dive into strange sonic territory, but beneath the noise beats a warm heart.

Melding pensive acoustic picking with sweeping synths and barely there rhythms, Raül Refree helps Lee Ranaldo sound daring, fearless and downright experimental again on Names of North End Women.

Maybe Names of North End Women will center a conversation about how listenable avant-garde and experimental music can be. If nothing else, it’s a compilation of eight strange, impeccably made songs with limitless authority on sound.

At its best, Names of North End Women is a beautiful creative rebirth.

Names of North End Women is marginally the more engaging of the two albums, possibly due to the previous creative relationship between Ranaldo and Refree. But All Hands Around The Moment actually illustrates most compellingly the contributions of each collaborator. [Feb 2020, p.55]

A curious mix of musique concrète, poetry and Ranaldo’s longstanding metier, avant-rock. The near-absence of guitars means that there is a sparseness to some of the tracks, but the prominent percussion, combined with samples and effects, makes for an industrial feel on many songs

‘Light Years Out’ is an ill-advised journey into electro-funk territory but overall, ‘Names of North End Women’ is an interesting work that shows Ranaldo has retained all his youthful capacity for innovation and experimentation.

Ranaldo and Refree are content to leave holes throughout, letting sounds do the most interesting work, nestling or scraping together. [Apr 2020, p.94]

The end result works better in some spots than others, “Lights Out” feels like the artists tossed everything they possibly could into the mix and the overload/instant shift in styles is a bit much while “The Art of Losing” featuring Haley Fohr (Circuit des Yeux )is torn between traditional song structure and free for all, never truly coalescing around either.