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R
Artist
Richard Ruin
4+ albums
Berlingermanalternative
about
Richard Ruin et Les Demoniaques. With its trumpets and choral arrangements, “Crystalline,” the first track on Berlin based Richard Ruin’s upcoming album “Downer” achieves a veritable euphoria. Indeed, the band emanates a remarkable degree of joy on its second album, Ruin’s voice consistently managing to confidently pluck the heartstrings. Twelve hymns tell of life’s painful separations, dream worlds, and the tireless carousel of all-night fantasies raging about nightly in damp, darkened cities. A final glance is painful, thrusting a quick knife stab to the chest. Ruin manages to bring such melancholy to the light of day, at least until descending into the next neon-lit tunnel. One sits hypnotized, listening to the songs with their ostentatious finales, bearing a deranged but satisfied grin. “Hope is the light of the world” and Richard Ruin finds consoling words amongst every bit of suffering. The magic of long lost sixties soul ballads and an appreciation for our future favorite James Bond melodies weave throughout the work, going slowly up in the smoke of a heroin-subdued longing. The album is sustained by suspense film flirts, single notes played on a piano, unsettling background noises, and Ruin’s deep, deathly sad voice – at least until an atonal electric guitar from the Demoniaques emerges, exploding the song. Timeless, we might say – and what of the present?! In the title song “Downer,” Ruin’s voice exudes insecurity and menace over hovering chords, while the ar
