- For anybody not familiar with Prince Rama, it's a good idea to get grounded in what exactly they are before getting stuck into any long-winded discussion about the virtue of their doing it ... hrrm, something about that didn't sound quite right. Anyways, for most of us, Prince Rama came spinning out of the cloud of crazy-making glow-dust that surrounds Animal Collective - bursting into our collective consciouness with a mixture of psychedelia, synths and, wait for it ... Hindu spiritualism. That's their thing, right there. Quite a prolific band, they've been pumping out an album a year since 2008 and, in fact, it's three founding members have been hanging out since long before they entered the Animal Collective orbit. Their roots are in the Florida, Krishna, farming collective where they grew up. I haven't been following them since the beginning, but last year's Shadow Temple was a beautiful place to begin. The name is apt, because it has something much more darkly exciting going on than your average, clap-happy Krishna chant. Pounding drums and acid synth bubbled in the mysterious and indistinct curtains of noise and it was difficult not to imagine - even join in with - the crowd of the sweaty and faithful, their arms raised in devotion to whatever deity it is that Prince Rama lead the worship of (er, Rama perhaps?). If I haven't emphasised it enough already, Prince Rama can really bring that kind of psychedelia that makes you dance - it is drenched in persperation and if it is a little scary, it is also euphoric. This latest record, Trust Now is ... the same, yet different. The biggest break with the past is that one member of the trio, Michael Collins, has departed. I'm not sure what exactly that entails, as I don't know which bits of the sound he was responsible for - and nobody seems to be talking! - well that's not quite true, his rather awesomely bassy vocals are notably absent, but that is the only thing explicitly 'missing'. Still, there is a very different feeling to this new record. Authenticity is not something I can comment on vis-a-vis Prince Rama's borrowings from Hindu spiritualism - although listening to their wilful mixture of English and Sanskrit into their own pidgin, they seem quite opportunistic; and yet! From the moment Trust Now started wafting into my ears I felt less like I was partaking in some transcendental dance and more like I was being lectured, brow-beaten, hectored by the band? The sound is more repetitive than before, pounding down upon the listener slowly, relentlessly. The overall effect is to make Prince Rama's ritual seem more like a forced conversion than a celebration: Trust now ... and drink this kool-aid. At the same time, the sound is sparser (if only by the band's own very overloaded standards), and in that new space the vocals of the two remaining members: sisters Tarak and Nimai Larson are allowed to take pride of place, imbuing a distinct and really rather unexpectedly poppy sweetness. Marry that with the aforementioned creepy devotionalism and you get ... a significant dose of unease. Gods know what people who actually understand the cultural tropes being appropriated here willy nilly, think of this record and Prince Rama as a whole. From a snotty, arty, Western, music-judging perspective I can tell you that Trust Now has provoked an almost unbelievably wide range of opinions. My own is in internal disarray. I'm upset because this isn't the great golden-dance-cloud that was Shadow Temple. At the same time, if I'd heard this in isolation, I'd have celebrated Prince Rama for their crass cross-culturlaism and the smearing of the often incredibly over-defined borders of Western pop-culture. Crushing, stifling, yet refreshing and enthralling at the same time, Oh well, I'm sure it's the same when any foolish mortal stumbles into the path of a deity, so is my experience of Prince Rama.