Everything about ritaleite is a mystery to me.
It starts with their enigmatic Twitter feed which averages less than one tweet per month over the last six years. And even those rare statements sent out into the ether have almost no narrative; it’s mostly broken SoundCloud and Bandcamp links along with varied and unexplained art. (To be fair, they probably weren’t broken links when first posted…or were they?)
Well one day in February ritaleite went mad and issued two tweets on the same day, and I was lucky enough to catch them because they linked to new music. Specifically, a 4-track EP called “PBIUDS.” What does that title stand for? I can confidently say I have no idea. Nor can I decipher the song titles that include the likes of “gawwaxc” and “kjhjc.” Are they acronyms or maybe some sort of code? Again, I have more questions than answers here.
But what’s important for my purposes, as always, is the music. And that too is a bit hard to explain. Each of the four tracks is several layers thick and includes (at times) keyboard, distortion, drones, pulses, swells and harsh electrical noises. For me it’s all on the continuum between pure noise and pleasant soundscape, but never too far in either direction. Since I guess I can’t really explain any of this, I recommend you just listen and appreciate the beauty and mystery; sometimes it’s OK to just enjoy the enigma.