REVIEWS of RAILCARS: CATHEDRAL WITH NO EYES LA Weekly: On his second release as Railcars, "Aria Jalali recounts the life of Edmund the Martyr, a 9th Century king of East Anglia, with songs about his life and succession to the throne as a young boy, his conquests, his suffering at the hands of vikings and death by their arrows." The label's claims may be true, but you wouldn't be able to make that out listening to Cathedral With No Eyes. The lyrics are far too muddled to piece together any sort of literary narrative (though the album art helps, featuring a miracle-working Saint Edmund on the front, and his severed head in a display case on the back), but there is plenty to glean, aurally speaking from this L.A. transplant's music. Jalali has a real knack for the artfully noisy, arranging decaying electronics, analog feedback, odd percussives, and a whirlwind of vocals into some downright pretty and driving soundscapes. -Chris Martins Fensepost: Fingerprints are an interesting thing. They’re a hard thing to lose, and even harder to identify without the proper know-how. In a way, they’re symbolic of the influences that inspire musicians, and Railcars is no different. Their latest, Cathedral With No Eyes has the undeniable fingerprints of Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart in both the eccentric noise instrumentation and the vocal shouts. A while back I posted an exclusive off this album, an unmastered version of “Passion of St. Edmumd (Rebirth)”. It’s easy to hear the progress the mastering brought forth — it’s still highly saturated with heavy static and occasional indecipherable vocals and notes alike. But there’s a clean quality to the overproduced static that’s as infectious as the swine flu. And hit track “Castles” is no different; in fact, it may even be more so. Cathedral With No Eyes is a rarity — it’s an album that would be ideal from start to finish in a live setting. In a way, this is an EP, chiming in at just under 20 minutes. On the other hand, it’s a glorified single with three feature tracks: “Castles”, “Passion Of St. Edmunds (Rebirth)” and the title track, “Cathedral With No Eyes”. The rest is highly sophisticated noise filler, songs that act as brilliant transitions without which this album would not be whole. Railcars chooses an unlikely format for an album ripe with religion; St. Edmund is mostly known (based on a limited amount of research) as a martyr through the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. But, as religion goes, it’s certainly not for everyone and neither is Cathedral With No Eyes. But for those who can tolerate — or better yet enjoy — noise pop, it’s an absolute masterpiece. The Rathaus: It can be difficult to mix medieval history and music. Very few who’ve tried have managed to successfully walk the narrow path between obnoxious enigma-esque cheesy renaissance fest-like schmaltz and pompous, brass and thesaurus friendly college rock music. Luckily Railcars manage to avoid these pitfalls quite handily on their newly-released 12” EP Cathedral With No Eyes, an album based on the life of Edmund the Martyr, a 9th century king killed by the Vikings – apparently by becoming a human target for their arrows – among other equally unsavory things. Railcars, led by LA-based multiple-instrumentalist Aria Jalali has turned the life and death of this king into an album of intense, glorious, nasty sounding beautiful noise rock that features no conspicuous luting or monkish chanting. Even without any of the obvious and overdone nods to the past, and perhaps because of this, Edmund’s story shines through in the whirling noise, drifting electronics and shifting craziness of Cathedral With No Eyes. No history book is required to love this music. However, if you are interested in 9th Century Martyr kings – seriously folks, this stuff makes for some good reading, take it from me – get started here. Railcars are taking their glorious messy noise on the road and they’ll be playing pretty much everywhere but here in Lawrence, KS sometime in the next month or so – I’ve not been so tempted to drive to Tulsa in a long while. In any case, get your hands on a copy of Cathedral With No Eyes on vinyl through Stumparumper or digitally on Gold Robot.