Rakta have been one of the most fascinating bands to follow the development of over the last decade, the Brazilians having refined, and expanded, their mind-altering sounds over a series of releases and earning a formidable live reputation. Much like their UK spiritual relatives GNOD, they’re a band you could wholeheartedly describe as playing psychedelic rock, but in a way that sounds nothing like the paisley shirted subpar Spacemen 3-ism that phrase so often evokes. Their psychedelia is altogether darker, less acid and more DMT perhaps, influenced as much by goth/death rock, and perhaps even the tribal utterances of bands like Crash Worship or Savage Republic. Rakta are often as frightening as they are hypnotic. This recording from the 2016, Live At Novas Frequências, captures the band at the height of their powers performing at one of Brazil’s most renowned festivals, and serves as both manna for long-time fans and perhaps a fine point of entry for those as yet uninitiated into Rakta‘s anti-chthonic sound world. The chorused-out bass, effected vocals and motorik drumming create a kind of tunnel vision for the ears that drag you continuously into their orbit, blocking out everything else around them. As live albums go it’s short and to the point, but then that’s no surprise; Rakta‘s very core is focus, so it’s natural this should serve as a concise document of their live set, rather than being excessive. Will you reach for this over the studio albums? Perhaps not, but it holds its own with everything they’ve put out so far, and works wonderfully as a standalone postcard from the outskirts of their lysergic musical territory.