Something Sensible
Aurora Dee Raynes
Released: 7 Feb 2023
Label: Tru Thoughts
With upfront support from Craig Charles (BBC 6Music), “Something Sensible” is the first single taken from the “Ribbon Of Hot Plasma” EP (out 30th March), the latest release from North London’s Aurora Dee Raynes. It follows their debut ‘Invisible Things’ LP and subsequent remixes from Shy One and El-B. Mapping their trajectory of maturity, growth and synergy as a band, the album saw support from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Huey Morgan, and Tom Ravenscroft (BBC 6Music), Marc Mac (4hero), Garth Trinidad and Aaron Byrd (KCRW), Clash Magazine, Bandcamp Weekly, THUMP, Stereofox, PopMatters, Fusicology, Laurent Garnier and Toshio Matsuura.
Built of gentle vocals over a subtly funky groove, “Something Sensible” explores the simple beauty that can be found in the sensible ending of a sensible relationship, choosing instead to stay in someone’s life from afar. “It’s not always about negative and hard feelings, there are layers”, vocalist Danielle Kranendonk muses. “A relationship can work, but it doesn’t mean it works out. There’s no anger there, just time to grow and do what you need to do for yourself”. This message at the core of the track is illustrated in the artwork. Featuring a floating heart, equipped with wings and a stopwatch, it symbolises that you can show your heart, soul, and feelings, but when the time comes, you’re free to fly away.
Pieced together by producer Stephen Raynes, the track begins with warm and earnest keys from Nicholas Johnson, which provide a cleansing backdrop for Kranendonk’s softer vocals to glide across. The funky driving force of the track comes from bassist Will Harper. Providing a bassline consisting of thoughtful takes, reworkings and layering, Harper’s offering roots the track and allows the other elements to come together with organic musicality and harmonious understanding.
The track features on the upcoming “Ribbon Of Hot Plasma” EP, out 30th March. As the first new music since the debut LP from Aurora Dee Raynes, the release sees the group revisit their core ethos, with the power of honest lyrics and collaborative production and instrumentation unifying and underpinning each of the tracks. Having taken the name Aurora Dee Raynes after finding the cashing off particles to create the Borealis a fitting metaphor for Raynes and Kranendonk crashing into each other to create music, they looked to the stars once again for the title of the project.
Stumbling upon the story of mysterious and unusual new aurora borealis (or more specifically a ribbon of hot plasma), fondly named STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement), they knew they’d found their EP title. “It is the “highly ionised plasma consisting of large numbers of electrons and positive ions, with the temperature of both being extremely high”. It’s a little weird, it sounds great and when we said it, we both reacted instantly. It describes our energy and it had Stephen’s name in it. A sign and a feeling born from what we decided to name ourselves,” explains Kranendonk.
