(Asthmatic Kitty, 50 Minutes)

www.asthmatickitty.com

“The recorded version of the song is not necessarily the definitive version of the song.” So says Ray Raposa (dba Castanets) in the marketing materials for Tendrils, a document of his music, but not necessarily him. It’s humble, virtually removing oneself from one’s own DVD—who needs to watch another indie filmmaker following around yet another indie rocker so we can see what we should already know from the music: that he’s pretty good at what he does, and he’s just like you and me? It’s also kinda pretentious, lettin’ the songs do the talkin’ through your friends (Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth, Jesse Ainslie, Phosphorescent), who not only interpret the songs, but twiddle knobs, tell lame dirty jokes, frolic in a pond, and discuss lyrics in Farsi with Polish subtitles (no joke there—at least not a funny one). However, Raposa’s songs are, y’know, pretty good; haunting and affecting, and no less so in the hands of his pals (especially Longstreth, whose opening take on “Rain Will Come” is a stunner). And the images—a long pan across foamy tide, two friends alone and playing music with (and maybe to) each other on the street—are as powerful and hypnotic as the tunes. So score one for Raposa and Co.

Special features: Download code for Castanets’ Tendrils EP, featuring remixes and covers. RANDY HARWARD