Favourite Releases of 2012: Group Rhoda - Out of Time, Out of Touch (Night School)

"Out of time, out of touch." That's exactly how I feel when I listen to the debut album of Group Rhoda, the solo project of San Francisco's Mara Barenbaum. Like fever dreaming, unsure if one is waking up back into reality or if the dream is just beginning, there's a disorienting sensation of having been dropped into the middle of an exotic, unplaceable, detached nowhere realm. Synthesizers hiss and rise like steam before tracelessly vapourizing into the night sky ("Virtual Dancer"); jungly percussion melts and drips out of the humid atmosphere ("Hi Rise"). I can't help but envision sultry, Surrealist dreamscapes painted in glowing neons that fade to soft pastels, like Henri Rousseau's jungle scenes doused in Dali's runny aesthetic.

On first impression, Out of Time, Out of Touch may seem thinly layered with very little to conceal. But listen closer, and you'll discover a bounty of life: warm beats patter like paws on the leafy, overgrown forest floor; electronics blink in and out of sight like fireflies; shakers rattle like creatures rustling in the bushes. You may feel an out-of-body lightness in this mirage-like environment, but the tender crackles of branches and bug-eaten logs beneath you remind you in your delirium of your weight. It's curiosity and intrigue over this microcosmic world of mystery - at the time when all of the unseen creatures of the night come to life and thrive (and feast) - that pulls listeners into Group Rhoda's fantastic world.

Though Group Rhoda presents an inviting scene into her tropical world on her Magritte-like album cover*, Out of Time, Out of Touch is not as innocuous as she leads one to believe. The open door and added allure of a comfortable bed are like the vivid spots and stripes on a frog: one can't help but be cautious of the poisonous dangers that lay in wait in her brightly coloured world. "Can you hear me call?," she asks no one in particular on "At the Dark," seemingly reading your mind. "'I'm looking at you / But you're not looking back," comes her reply on "Silence."

Though you still can't see or hear what's lurking in the dark, invisible to the naked eye, "Nightlight" seems to depict the moment you realize without a doubt you're being stalked. By then, it's almost too late: your pulse rises; panic intensifies; desperation sets in. With no escape in sight, album closer "Fire" best illustrates the frantic last dash for a way out after shaking free from whatever mystical force has tried to wrap its seductive, predatory spell over you. You stumble and trip - become entangled in vines as the unseen prowls, and all you can hear is the siren's call ringing behind you: "There is a light / You can stay, if you want to / Stay if you want to / Stay if you want to." But if you've found yourself this deep in the bush, you don't have a choice; Group Rhoda already has you where she wants you.

* There's a version of Belgian Surrealist René Magritte's The Human Condition painted in 1945 that I think Out of Time, Out of Touch's cover art more closely resembles. From what I recall, the painting depicts a room, a door and most similarly a bed. I saw the version at the Surrealism exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery last year but haven't been able to find an image of that version since, hence why I can't fully remember.