Magic Lantern – Platoon 
Normally I’ve balked at anniversary pieces. Sometimes it just seems like an excuse for writers to put their own rubber stamp on an album that’s already been cemented and certified as a crowd favorite. Fun, but often unnecessary. I’m not always one to wax nostalgic for self-aggrandizing purposes, but as we now get pretty squarely into the prime anniversaries of the Blogspot years of RSTB’s past, there are a few albums I find ripe for revisiting. I’ll scratch below the surface and bring back a few old Raven faves that might not have been on your list to listen to, but definitely should be. I’ll start with an album that spent a significant amount of time on the speakers, and one that I still find myself going back to every few years. Cameron Stallones may have garnered a fair bit more press with Sun Araw, but I think he may have come to my attention with the Lantern first. The band built a reputation through releases on Not Not Fun and Woodsist, but they really broke out of the tape n’ tar pit of their early years with High Beams, an album that refined the sound that had marked those early tapes. The band would end their run with Platoon and an accompanying EP Showstopper, both of which were combined in the CD release.
Like Sun Araw, the band employed Stallones’ echo-drenched guitar work, but unlike the more solitary slink of Araw, Magic Lantern shored up the cavernous sounds with a thick n’ thunderous rhythm section, giving them a leg up in heft. The band bests their previous two works on Platoon, a storm of chugging rhythms that’s torn and tagged by organ, guitar, and guttural yelps from Stallones that sound like John Spencer lost at sea and raging against the maelstrom. The record even slips in a few slices of brass among the dub and debris. This is definitely the kind of record that might have hit the niche hard during 2010, a time when tape labels were catching their stride and all the psych seemed dipped in noise. But, 15 years on it still stands as an engrossing outing, one that cocoons the listener in crystal waves, dub clouds, and licks built to lacerate. The record’s a bit harder to come by new these days, but digging around Discogs ought to put one on your turntable without really denting the wallet. I suggest you seek it out digital or analog, and let it rattle a few rafters.