Rakta, Didi, The Stops, The Lonely
Recommended
Rakta gets their name from a Hindi word meaning red, blood, passion, and power—apt descriptors of the band’s sepulchral sound. The four women from São Paulo, Brazil, are on tour supporting their recent EP, III, on Iron Lung Records. Rakta’s spectral, cavernous punk is drenched in reverb and swirling organs, drawing from the goth end of the anarcho/peace punk spectrum (with hints of Xmal Deutschland and Rubella Ballet), hypnotic death rock, and psychedelic garage rock. With an inventiveness that keeps them from sounding derivative or retro, Rakta’s freeform experimentalism sets them apart from the recent wave of post-punk/darkwave bands. DANIELA SERNA