by Shea Roney (@uglyhug_)
When it comes to creative directions, Raavi Sita is never one to fall into a discernible pattern, but as her career reaches its five year mark, it’s clear that she finds comfort in honing new ways to tell a genuine story. Sita, who fronts the Brooklyn-based quartet, Raavi, recently shared their new EP, The Upside, finding the artist putting aside the rambunctious basement rockers, as their Mtn. Laurel Recording Co. debut plays to the intimacy of discovery and the effectiveness of condensed reverie. Raavi wastes no time in articulating moments of clear contemplation and grief, all neatly packed within equally compelling instrumentals and vivid compositions.
With each song ranging in the time it was written, placement has had a huge impact on how Sita not only displays these stories, but how she is able to consistently display herself as she continues to grow as a person within this project. Leaning back into a collective waltz of strings, the EP kicks off with the lush and poignant “Henry”. Written on a guitalele on a trip to visit her dad in Pakistan, Sita balances her lyricism within a conversation, where one side never replies, but we so easily feel the suffocation that the silence represents – “Don't hate me, Henry / Now you know I'm not like those other girls.” It’s a brief song, but one that so handily crafts Sita’s personal revelations of sexuality and identity in under two minutes. “The Exchange,” written in Spain, showcases Sita’s attention to the instrumental voicings below, filling these rather simple ideas with such character and charisma that feels incredibly fresh for the genre. As articulated guitar parts just melt over the lower ends, Sita rides this momentum all the way through.
Ravishing through the blunders and confusion of high school intimacy, “Take Me” finds Sita conducting a more pensive sonic display of brash electronica that builds out like armor around the song’s tender core. Almost in a plea, Sita sings, “Oh god please just take me / Oh take me / Just take me,” as the song burns out just as quickly as it was ignited. The slow slide of a bass sets “Shadows” into motion with a groove, undeniable to Sita’s upbringing in DIY house shows. “I know I’m playing on a hunting ground,” she sing over layers of anesthetic guitars and atmospheric experimentation as Sita’s vocals play to its rhythm and the disillusionment of gender dynamics in music scenes. The EP’s most fervent track comes at its closure, as “The Upside” feels to be the simplest in the batch, yet the ringing harmonics of Sita’s guitar blending with the slight harshness in her vocal inflections ignite an ending that feels complete as it finally patches the holes that Sita has been sewing shut time after time again.