Boy Eats Drum Machine

I’ve been meaning to write about Boy Eats Drum Machine—Jonny Ragel’s wonderful music project—for some time. I’m not sure why I’ve put it off. Maybe I’ve been too busy entertaining my addiction to his new album, Two Ghosts. At first I thought he was Portland’s best-kept secret. And then I realized he’s not much of a secret. People have been fawning over him since he self-released his debut album, Pleasure, a couple of years ago. I suppose I wasn’t paying much attention. Where was I? At least I’m here now. ‘Cause I can’t get enough of Two Ghosts. Pleasure is good, quite good. But Two Ghosts is outstanding. Where to begin? Ragel is a Portland native who started playing music, like most, in high school punk bands—“shitty punk bands” as Ragel puts it. He tired of the band thing, bought a drum machine and began writing his own songs. They started out sounding like old video games, and then blossomed into something else entirely. Ragel’s got great ear and he can play most anything you hand him. He can shift from baritone to falsetto on a dime. And he can toss out hooks that get you every time. He’s also fascinated with old records, drum breaks and sampling (he deejays from time to time). So bring together a multitude of instruments, a powerful voice and a knack for clever sampling and arrangements and you come out with a collection of songs that push a rush of blood or energy or emotion or something unspeakably good through your body. His songs flood you and torch you. Maybe it’s just me but they feel like something else. It’s not easy putting together an album like this. There are strings, keys, beats, horns, samples, vocals, accordion and more. There are dance grooves, drum crashes, raw textures and big emotions. There are borrowed sounds—sounds he so obviously adores—and then there is he, unmistakably there, and the result defies genre altogether. Ragel started out solo but has since been joined by a drummer—Ragel claims he has no skills behind the kit—and another multi-instrumentalist, Peter Swenson and Benjy Rickard, respectively. Together, they bring Ragel’s stories and songs alive in good strong form. And together, if justice serves, they should grow from local favorite to a national, maybe international, love (albeit, and surely, in an underground form).Two Ghosts is a concept album that tells an Orwell-inspired story of a couple who escape, attempting to rid themselves of a world with “worsening intentions.” The first half of the album is optimistic, following the couple through their beautiful travels away from an “Oregon shore.” But later they find they’ve been followed and to avoid being caught they turn into clouds. The kicker? Now that they’re clouds, they can no longer be together – there is no true escape, at least not one that doesn’t come without a trade-off. Ragel, a creative and prolific individual, for certain, illustrated the artwork for Two Ghosts, simplifying the story with childlike drawings and scribbled handwriting. He wanted all of the copies to be handmade—as was true for Pleasure’s 100 handmade copies—but, this time around, having grown largely in popularity, this would be impossible. Still, infused with so much passion, soul and talent, Two Ghosts was undoubtedly made with great care, it has so much to offer. You can hear his songs and watch his videos "here":http://www.boyeatsdrummachine.com